Snow
by L3gendary Ess3nce
Summary: An emotionally broken girl goes out on a wacky pokemon journey through the sinnoh region. Volkner x OC, plus a bunch of other combos.
1. Chapter 1

Hello, and welcome to an actual _story_ by me!

Chapter 1: All Snow eventually Melts

"London, I really think you should go see a therapist."

"No."

"London, this is your friend speaking. Listen to me for once."

"No, Jasper, I won't and you can't make me."

"London, please. At least let me be your therapist." Jasper sighed.

London thought about this idea for a moment. Outside, the snow softly flew down to the ground, each individual snowflake. The start of the month of December was slowly upon the small city of Amaranth, named for its distinctive style of color for the roofs that sat on most japanese influenced buildings. However, it looked Japanese but acted like an American suburb, with buildings on the forefront and gardens in the back of all the houses. Jasper lived in the more wealthy part of town, a place where mini palaces were built and lived in by people who expected to be treated by kings and queens. Their relationships were built off of superficial traits, and they usually had enough money to hire several servants. However, their family life was built for the older generation, arranged marriages and the acquirement of wealth usually destroyed any notion of love. Jasper never had any notion of how a real family operated besides what he knew from Morgan and his family, but he had endless room for entertainment. A knock at the door interrupted London's thought process.

"Better get that," Jasper got up and strode across the big room, out of the pillow and comforter fort to the heavy wooden door, and opened it to a tall figure dressed in black. His face was covered by a huge scarf, but Jasper knew those brown eyes anywhere.

"Morgan! How nice of you to join us! London and I were just talking." Jasper held open the door as Morgan unwrapped the scarf from his head and unbuttoned his long coat. He locked it as Morgan hung his coat up on the hanger.

"So, what was it about?"

"Well, I guess we're putting London through therapy."

"Therapy, so she finally agreed to it?" Morgan raised his eyebrows.

"Not exactly," Jasper said.

"I didn't agree to anything yet, you guys." London interjected. "But I guess it's okay."

"Fine, it's settled," Jasper said. "Tell us your version of what happens. Way back before that. Start when Diane died."

"Okay, then here we go." London took a breath and started. "It all happened in 8th grade. The source of my sadness starts way back further though. The time where I excused both of my parents' constant absences for just work, when in reality, they were working. Mother was working on the guy in the office and at his house, and Father was drowning himself in debt with a bottle of scotch and a bunch of bets on pokemon fighting. Everyday at school was another- annoying teachers, annoying people, and a group of people I hung out with. Until that one day."

"That day I went to school, ate lunch with Diana, Jasper, and Morgan, and then I went to more classes, and walked home with Morgan because he lived farther out then I did. I figured neither would be home."

"Go on," Morgan said.

"I still thought they were working. However, I came home to a different story. I slid the door open to hear sex- moaning of my mother's voice and unfamiliar grunting. I immediately assumed that was my dad. I had thought nothing of it, because my parents had been arguing for weeks and I think they decided to settle it. I shut the door, and went upstairs to my room to start on my homework.

"Then I heard the garage door open. I saw Father's red sedan pulling in, and in a series of events, I heard crashing. However, that was just the tip of the iceberg."

"My Father ran into Mother's adulterator. He simply looked at him and nodded. I saw him set his briefcase down and walked into the bedroom. My mother did not deny anything. I watched from the landing of the stairs, and then I ran upstairs after the arguing broke out. I put my head under my pillows and waited for it to stop."

"They yelled themselves into the night. They yelled themselves hoarse. They yelled at each other until they stopped and took a break. Then they yelled at each other more. They yelled about the most insignificant shit after the argument. Then my mother yelled that she was leaving and taking me. My father retaliated that she would have no place to take me. Then my mother hit my father. "

"Then I heard screams and a bang and I jumped down the stairs. I watched as my father shot himself in the arm. I watched him plant the gun in my mothers hand and position her. I watched as he framed my mother, and I watched as he faked the emergency call. The next day I went to school early in the morning, and found Morgan and cried. Morgan swore he didn't tell a soul, but the media already jacked off on this tragedy and blew it out of proportion. Everyone pitied me for a day. Random people came up and hugged me. They said comforting words. I had to fake every bit of sadness as I felt numb to everything. My father didn't come home that week. And I didn't want him to."

"Next day, the news got out the Diana's father hung himself. Moreso out of grief for bailing on my mother. No one knew about the affair until a long time later. But by then it didn't matter. I followed the same procedure as everyone else. I tried to help her. However, she was too broken and so was her mother. I heard her final words on the Xtransceiver."

"Hey guys, I just want you guys to know I love you guys, and I think you'll all be great later on. Bye!" Too bad the three of us were too late to her house, even by the taxis we had taken, even Jasper's car almost totaled on her front lawn. Time was against all of us. We found her incoherent and no antidote would save her. The worst part was when we had to break the news to her mother, who came home just as she died."

A moment of silence hung in the air between the trio. Everyone had received that phone call.

"Thus, I lost two things in life, my friend from childhood and my mother. This was the story of 8th grade year, people pitying me, people pitying diana, and people pitying themselves because they couldn't do anything. This all happened in the same week. Let's go down the timeline. Monday, Daddy killed mommy and planted the evidence. Tuesday, Diana's dad had hung himself. And finally, Thursday, Diana had drank a mix of chemicals and died painfully. The worst week of my life, the end of three lives."

London continued on, as if stopping would release the floodgates.

"This is probably the reason for my depression. We went to two funerals that weekend. The first one was for my mother. They had made her look pretty good, despite the bullet in her forehead. She was smiling in her white wedding dress. They closed the casket after I had ruined her dress with my tears. My father sat down for the entire service, head in his hands. He couldn't even comprehend the damage he had done. He didn't even look at her face one last time. She was transported by carriage by a group of Ponyta's. Ghost pokemon followed the procession, sucking up gloom and hate and sadness like they always do. The next was Diana and her father. Both dressed in their finest black clothes, us sitting in the front row trying to stop her mother from completely losing it during the ceremony. "

Another pause.

"Then we all went to my house. My dad wouldn't come back for the next month, that was clear enough by the note on the counter. I wished he would drink himself to death. Morgan, Jasper, and I lived out of my room for the time, just numb and emotionless dolls. A banette came and hung out with us, trying to make us feel better. He eventually left, seeing as we couldn't laugh at his antics. We had the tv on just for the white noise and we just cried ourselves to sleep.

"This was eighth grade year. We eventually got over it, however we didn't mention Diana anytime ever again. She was gone, It wasn't right to bring back memories. "

The floodgates had opened up, and London sat there, crying her eyes out. Both Jasper and Morgan hugged her for comfort, and it was dark outside before she would talk again. It had been 4 years since the week of tragedy. School was almost over, considering we took the Pokemon Aptitude Test at the end of November. Most people graduated right after that, going off to the prospective regions that they had chosen on the PAT's. This was their last two weeks in school before the took the test on friday and got their results the following monday.

London's confession didn't stop there, though.

"It had been 4 years since my father started drinking at home. With the drinking, the gambling left, and he started beating me. I avoided him whenever I could. Luckily this was easy, him being pass out from drinking, but it was another story when I got home from school. However, last night was the breaking point. He beat me until I had bruises all over my arms, then I got out before he could do any more damage. I hid in the tall grass until it seemed he had passed out again, then went to bed."

"And this was the first time I tried to kill myself. I went and bought painkillers from that weird guy who always stalks the popular class, and took them all. I had to have my stomach pumped at the hospital. I always hated those walls, all white and inviting, for a building filled with suffering and death. I returned home the next day, and missed one day of school. My dad beat me for the medical charges too."

Morgan clenched his fists at the mention of London's father. She continued.

"The next week I had tried to hang myself. I went to the corner store and bought a rope. I left a note for you two this time, and also one revealing the actual events of my mother's death. It was always a stressful job, but you know the story now. Although I doubt anyone will believe you now, after all these years. So after my father had beaten me again, I snuck out the window, dressed in a black dress and veil, and I went to the park. I found a park bench and a tree, and tied the rope on there. The noose hanging from the tree, I balanced my way on the small sliver of wood until I caught my head in the noose. I tightened it and prepared for death."

"I writhed around on the rope, choking myself to death. My ears started to ring, my vision started to fade, and then- SNAP. I fell to the ground and felt myself gasp for air. I was played. A homeless man who was watching then walked up to me. He said he was going to call the suicide hotline. Which, in turn, meant my father being notified and more beatings for me. I was so simply beyond caring by that point I asked what I could do for him. I took off my dress, and laid there in stockings, heels, and panties until he took off his pants and humped me for a good fifteen minutes. I took it like some dirty whore. He finished his deed by spraying his semen all over my back, and he stood over me, grinning, zipping his pants up."

London stopped, her face red because she realized how much shame this caused her.

"Wait, London, do you remember this guy's face? Anything about him?" Jasper asked.

"No, and besides, it wouldn't make much point in you kicking his ass anyway." She said.

"But, this guy practically raped you! Isn't that-"

London calmed her protective friend down. "No, just let it go, Jasper. This all happened in the past, and you can't change it now."

"And, that's when I found you," Morgan said.

"Yes, and that's when Morgan found me. I don't know why he was out so late-" London continued.

"Midnight shopping, If I recall correctly," Morgan said.

"Shopping?" Jasper asked, curious.

"It's a lot easier to shop night. Less people," Morgan defended himself.

"Ah. Go on," Jasper said.

"So anyway, he found me, cleaned me up, and brought me back to his place. I told him something to the extent of how everyone hates us, and how much my dad hits me, and eventually I just needed a shoulder to cry on. And, Morgan, I'm grateful for that. I just wanted to let you know."

"However, I don't want you guys to tell this to anybody I wouldn't be comfortable you telling this about. Promise on it." London ordered.

"I promise," Jasper said.

"As do I," Morgan said. "But I'm afraid our time needs to be cut short. I need to wake up to leave tomorrow."

London had tried to block this thought out of her mind. Morgan had taken his PATs early, so he was leaving earlier than the two.

"Ah, don't worry about it. I'll drive you two home."

The three got into the pine green luxury sedan, barely visible in the dark. The car started up silently, and Jasper began his rounds to get back to Morgan's house, which was the farthest out. The drive home was uneventful, besides Jasper stopping to get them some dinner at a local fast food restaurant. Usually they would go out to eat, but it was too late and most restaurants were closed at the time. They pulled up to Morgan's small house. Morgan's mom met them at the curb.

"Hi, Sweeties! I hope you too do well on your tests tomorrow! And make sure to be at the bus stop, 6 o'clock sharp. We wouldn't want Morgan to leave without his two best friends giving him a send off!"

"Right, Ms. Tenshi, we wouldn't miss it." London assured her.

"You can count on us!" Jasper said.

They pulled out the driveway and drove to London's house. Jasper cut the lights off- he already knew what insignificant things London's dad beat her for, even before the confession. He pulled up as silently as he could.

"You be careful, alright. You know to call me or Morgan if anything happens?"

"Jasper, I'm not as brittle as you think."

"We're here for you, London. We care about you more than you think."

London slipped silently out the door and carefully closed it shut. Jasper pulled out with as much grace as he could muster, and drove down the road. She watched him as he went. She quickly put the key in the lock and turned it. Silently opening the door, the blue haired girl slipped inside.

However, she reprimanded herself for not entering through the window like she normally did when she encountered her father, a swaying giant in the walkway between the living room and the hallway. He grabbed London by the hair and threw her down onto the tiled floor.

"So, London, where were you? You're just like your mother, you know that! ALWAYS FUCKING YOUR BEST FRIENDS!" He bellowed. London struggled to get up, bracing herself against the wall for support. However, the parent soon helped her with that. He grabbed her throat, and pulled her up against the wall until their faces were level with each other. London squirmed, but she knew there was no way out of this.

"Where were you, London? Why don't you answer me? Why do you hate me? WHY CAN'T YOU TALK TO YOUR OWN FATHER!" He threw her into the next room, and she stumbled into the counter, knocking the wind out of her.

"YOU STUPID SLUT! WHY CAN'T YOU DEFEND YOURSELF!" London turned just to see her father's fist connect with her left arm. She feebly lifted the other to defend herself, but it was no use. He hit her again and again, and then finally swept both her legs from underneath her. She fell to the ground. London's tearstained eyes wandered across the room, looking for an escape route. She saw her father prepare to down another bottle, and she watched as he lifted it up to his lips.

She rolled herself between her father's legs and into the hallway. Getting up, she limped to the stairs and crawled them like a baby. She heard her father following her, stomping down the hallway. She finally made it to her room, and locked the door.

"London, get out here this instant! You caused all of it, London! You need to get out sometime!" Her dad pounded away at the door, but to no avail. She was grateful the locks were sturdy. She fell on the bed. The broken girl broke out in sobs, trying as hard as she could not to lose her grip on life.

Loosely based on Red Jumpsuit Apparatus' _Face Down._

_PM me for requests, I guess. I still need to catch up with the others._


	2. Chapter 2

Ch 2

London rose early, afraid that she would not have enough time. She peeled her clothes off from last night and stumbled into her bathroom. Pulling her eyes open, she poked her contacts in her deep blue eyes, and started the water.

Shower was a slower affair than usual, being that she wanted to make her hair look nice for the final time Morgan saw her until she went off. She redyed it and combed it out. She pulled herself out of the shower, blow-drying her hair and combing it before she donned a blue dress with white trim, and a black sweater with white buttons. She retrieved a blue purse from her closet and put her essentials in it. Slinging her backpack across her back, she stepped into a pair of blue flats and quietly opened the door.

She glanced right. She glanced left. No sign of her father, who she had an episode with last night. She peeked in his room further down the second floor hallway. He had passed out on his bed- pants off and a porn movie start up screen on the tv in his room. London had no desire to look at the miserable sight, and instead closed the door and moved the potted plant in front of his door so she would have warning when he would try and thrash her again.

She walked downstairs and fixed herself a bowl of oatmeal and a coffee. She sat down and ate it, studying a bit for the upcoming tests today, namely the PATs.

The Pokemon Aptitude Tests, known as the PATs, were what every kid took to determine where they would be in the pokemon world. Each kid would go through a journey, short or long, until their 3rd defeat named what they would do in life. Each person would continue their journey until they were defeated or sometimes even killed. Many just came back to the city and pursued a basic career and family life. It also determined the starter pokemon, whether it would be a basic one or something better. She finished her breakfast and cleaned the dishes. She walked outside and got in Jasper's car, which had just pulled in.

Jasper pulled into the school parking lot and they both walked the trek. Jasper noticed London was awfully guarded, to the point of flinching from his touch while they chatted.

"London, let me see your arms," Jasper commanded.

"W-what? There's nothing wrong with them, why?" London stuttered.

"London, let me see your arms," Jasper asked more forcefully.

"O-okay." London rolled up her sleeves. Jasper looked at them. They looked like London's normal, pale arms. However, when he went to touch them, she jerked away.

"Jasper!"

"London!"

The two stopped and locked eyes for a moment.

"Why did you put makeup on your arms?"

"T-This is normal!"

"London, that's really cute!" Jasper changed his serious expression to a smile.

"W-what is?" She asked, blushing.

"Whenever you're lying, you stutter. So are you going to tell me what he did to you?"

"Oh fine! It happened. Again." London looked down at her shoelaces.

"London, you really should stay the night at my house tonight. At least it would give you a break!"

"No, I can handle this on my own! I don't need your charity!" London almost screamed back.

"It's not charity, it's care." Jasper closed his eyes in frustration. "Look, London, I don't know why you even go back to that place! It's only filled with tragedy. Just...stay with me, tonight, okay?" The bell interrupted his offer.

"I'll consider it," London said. They headed for their respective test rooms, conveniently across the room from each other. The turnout for the third week of december was unbelievably low, but it was to be expected. Everybody had gotten off last week and the only thing that allowed London to come in was this small chance to leave her father forever. She sat down at the seat right next to the window, so she could have some natural light. Next to her, however, was a different story.

"Ah, London, how are you? Feeling on the brink of death again?" A taunt came from the left of her.

London sighed. Phoebe was the complete opposite of London, in every way. Her hair was a fiery red, she had a dominant headstrong personality, and a level of popularity that London could never hope to reach. To top it all off, she was a massive bitch as well, losing no chance to make fun of her opposite.

"You should ask your mother who spends more time at the bar: my dad or yours." London retaliated back, knowing that Phoebe's dad was a man who spent almost every night at the bar, for refuge from actual fatherly duties.

"You know, no matter how much makeup you put on your arms, you can never cover up the fact that your father doesn't give a ratatta's ass about you." she snarled back.

The Prefect walked into the room before London could come up with a good rebuttal.

"Good afternoon, Today you will be taking the Official Pokemon Aptitude Tests administrator by the Pokemon Legion. I am Mr. Charles and I would like to ensure that everyone is here."

The standard things were done: attendance and repetitive instructions that were extremely insignificant in the long run. Tests were passed out, Number two pencils were used, and the first leg of the test was to begin.

"Please open your test booklet to page one and start!" Mr. Charles exclaimed as he sat down and started on a book.

London did as she was told, and was greeted by the first question.

_How many types of attacks are there?_

_A. 17_

_B. 2_

_C. 3_

_D. 1_

This was easy. Special and Physical, London knew that. She filled in B for her first answer. The second question was a tad harder

_Choose the false statement to this question. How many eggs will be _

_A. Zero, providing they are of an incompatible egg group._

_B. Infinite, provided they are of a compatible egg group._

_C. One, provided they are taken away immediately after the first egg is produced._

_D. Infinite, regardless of the egg group._

This was a bit more difficult, a toss-up between C and D. London reread the answers and discovered that D was the correct answer. She filled that in.

_How does one nullify a Levitate ability? _

_A. Use the move Gravity_

_B. Use a Ground move_

_C. Use a Flying pokemon_

_D. Use an Electric move_

This was a bit harder than the first two, but London knew what couldn't be and erased the three last answers, filling in her final answer as A.

The rest of the test was a blur. London turned in her sheets and walked outside. Phoebe elbowed her, scuttling out of the classroom.

"Hope you get a zubat as a starter!" She called back to her. London grimaced, and that emotion carried her all the way to Jasper's car, where he was absentmindedly chatting with a lass. She was in no mood for niceties today, at least, not after that run-in with that bitch.

"AHEM!" London grunted.

"Oh, hey London. Sally, text you later." Jasper said as he unlocked the car and threw his bag in the backseat. She giggled and walked off. London and Jasper decided to hang around a local indian restaurant before going to the send off. Jasper said he was going to show up at 5, so they had about 2 hours to kill. The indian food was great, to say the least. They chatted about random things until Jasper's watch alarm beeped.

"Oh, that means it's time to go." He said.

They thanked the nice lady that worked the restaurant and then got in Jasper's car. They parked outside Morgan's house on the street. Morgan and his mother came out immediately. The three friends talked excitedly about the journey on the way to the airport. Ms. Tenshi regaled them with tales of when she was a trainer, with a certain group of trainers that sounded vaguely familiar to them. They each laughed and had fun with each other. They stopped at the airport drop off zone.

"Are you sure, Ms. Tenshi, you'll be alright taking a cab."

"Oh, I've done worse." She smirked and headed inside with one of Morgan's suitcases.

"Ok guys, now I'll see you in Vielstone City, alright? I'll be waiting there." He said. He gave both of them a hug.

"Jasper, London- don't do anything stupid while I'm away. Make sure my mother's okay." The trio checked their phones to make sure they had all the necessary info.

Morgan walked into the airport, waving goodbye -for now- to his friends. The two watched as mother and son went past the sliding doors. London and Jasper silently got into the car.

"You think he'll be okay?" London asked.

"Yeah," Jasper reassured her.

* * *

Next thing London knew, she had scars on one of her arms and she was sitting in a therapist's office, waiting for the doctor to enter. Through a series of unexplainable events, she had stolen liquor from the cornor store, ran from the cops until they had lost her, and went home. She then drank half the bottle and attempted to kill herself by slicing her wrists. She had just finished the first arm when her dad walked in the room, saw what she was doing, and slammed her against the wall.

"YOU STUPID BITCH! YOU CAN'T ESCAPE REALITY!" He screamed at her. He pulled her off the ground. He pulled her up to eye level.

"Guess what?" He snarled at her.

"What?" His daughter asked, gritting her teeth for another hit.

The tension could be broken by the squeak of a mouse.

"CHICKENBUTT! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" He bellowed, dropping her. He strode to the door, but then turned back.

"You're going to therepy tomorrow. Maybe then you won't end up like that whore you call your mother." He slammed her door shut, taking the alcohol and the knife she had.

She opened her eyes to the present and saw a grey haired green eyed shrink sitting in the chair opposite to her. He was busy taking notes. She looked around the beige room. Pleasant paintings were placed perpendicular to her. Tasteful rugs were on the ground. The chair was comfortable and made of a chocolate leather. Despite it's inviting appearance, London knew his game. Therapists are almost worse than criminals. They pretend to care about people's problems, and take a big check home after they've heard people pour their heart out to them. They joke around about how fucked up these people are and how gullible they are to actually pay them to fix a problem that exists in the mind. They all offer the same advice. Her loathing to this process was evident, as she had visited quite a few in the past and she got the same advice and the same medication every time. However, her loathing was cut off by a clear, deep voice.

"Hello, London. My name is Dr. Nelson and I will be your therapist for today and tomorrow. Your father has instructed me to prescribe something to you at the end of the last session. So, tell me about what happened last night. Your father said something about killing yourself?"

"He doesn't care about me. I don't know why he's paying you for this anyway. You can't fix me," London said stubbornly. "Yes, I tried to kill myself for the third time this year. It didn't work, like all the other attempts and the consequences keep getting worse. I should stop this whole gig right now."

"Why do you feel that you need to kill yourself?"

"Oh, I don't know? Let's list the reasons right now: My dad is a pathatic drunk who beats me, one of my best friends just left on a journey to Sinnoh, another one of my best friends killed herself with a gruesome death, her dad killed himself because of my mom, and my mom died directly as a result of fucking her dad and being a cheating bitch. Is there anything else you'd like to know?" She spat out bitterly.

"I see," Nelson said, scribbling notes around.

"No you fucking don't." London muttered.

"Excuse me, London? I didn't catch that last part."

"You have no vision in this! You can't see a thing! It's all blurry to you! YOU HAVE ABSOLUTLY NO INSIGHT INTO WHAT I"M FEELING RIGHT NOW!" London shouted.

"London, I'm here to help! Just calm down!" Nelson's forehead bunched up in frustration. London realized how out of hand she was getting, and a moment of silence was followed.

"No, you're not. You can't help someone as broken as me." London panted. Then she broke.

"London, relax." Nelson tried to offer her some comfort. She sobbed into her sleeves, darkening the already blue into a midnight shade. Her eyes were red as she looked up and remembered where she was. There was silence for the remainder of the time as Nelson scribbled furiously on his pad and London recomposed herself.

"This session has ended today. I have something in mind for you. Come back tomorrow." Nelson ushered her out of the room.

She walked home, unaware of the girl who had watched her walk out of the hospital.

* * *

Jasper had picked her up today again, however there was no friendly banter, only silence between the two as Jasper's music set a nice ambience.

"London, what's wrong?" Jasper asked.

"Nothing," She said dismissively.

"London, if you want to actually talk about your problems, you can tell me. I'm not going to pry any further into this." Jasper sighed.

They walked into school together and went into their respective classes. The school day went uneventfully, until the dragon reared it's head again.

"Hey London! When will they fix you?" Phoebe dashed past her, pushing her down. The redhead laughed as she ran out the door.

"STUPID BITCH!" London turned around to see Jasper shaking his fist at Phoebe, but she was already gone.

"Need some help there?" He stretched his hand out and pulled London up.

"Thanks Jasper." She dusted herself off and walked out to the car with him. "I need you to drop me off at the hospital."

"Hospital? Why?" Jasper looked concerned.

"Just do it. Please wait for me as well."

"Ok, whatever you say." They got in the sedan and drove off. Jasper handled himself rather gracely navigating the downtown until he got the the hospital.

"Ok, wait in the lobby. I'll be down in an hour." London said. Jasper drove off to find a place to park.

The hospitals white tiled floors greeted her again as she walked into a place that she once hated. But today was filled with hope. She smiled at a man being taken out of the hospital in a wheelchair, as he needed the joy more than she did. She rode the shiny metal elevator up to the therapy wing. She stepped out. Nelson was already waiting for her when she arrived in the room.

"Take a seat, London." He said. She did as she was instructed.

"London, It appears that what you need is a vacation. Have you ever had one?" Nelson asked.

"If I ever had one, then I don't recall it," London admitted.

"Ok, well if you've never had one, then I feel a need to explain. A vacation is a trip elsewhere for a period of time. It allows you to get away. So, I'm going to send you away from this town on a pokemon journey. You're long overdue for it." Nelson said.

"You will be going to the sinnoh region at the end of this week. What is your friend's full name? The one that drove you here, I mean."

"Jasper Augustus Verde."

"Okay," He typed on his keyboard. After a few minutes, he continued his speech.

"You and Jasper will leave at the end of this week. You have scored pretty high on the PAT's, this will help you pay for the journey there and give you a little money. You should tell your friend. It is wednesday, you will leave on friday." He handed her the two transport pass.

_TRANSPORT PASS (2) obtained!_

"I wish you luck on your journey. Your gear should arrive on friday. If you need anything, here is my number." He handed her a slip of paper with his number scribbled on it.

"Thank you doctor. I apologize for yesterday." London admitted.

"It's not a problem. Now go, pack! And for heaven's sakes don't tell your dad until the time you leave." Nelson advised.

She ran out to Jasper, who had just finished finding a parking spot and walking the long trek to the doors.

"Aww, come on! I just got here!"

"Well, now you aren't. Come on!" She pressed the _TRANSPORT PASS_ into his hands.

"Wait, what's this?"

"Come with me and I'll tell you!"

They walked out of the hospital and London explained the entire thing to Jasper.

"Wait, so we got high scores?"

"Yep! The results are due on friday."

London was dropped off at her house. She opened the door and slipped in, peering into the living room. The TV was off, and her dad was no where to be found. She quickly started the washing maching up for her clothing. She was sure she would need a lot.

Friday had come without incident. Jasper stepped out of his car and lightly tapped on the door. The door opened, revealing London in a short blue dress with a green trim. Her hair was put up

Jasper blushed, "Damn, London..."

"W-why? Do I look bad?"

"No, you look absolutely stunning! I'm surprised you went to all this trouble."

"Well, this is the last time he's going to see me- might remind him what he's lost." She said.

He grabbed her suitcases and put them in the trunk of the car. She did the same with the last one as well.

"Did you get your package?" He asked.

"No, I forgot to check the mail." She retrieved a big box from the front porch and sorted through the mail, tossing the bill errantly on the table. She then took that box and put it on top of the car.

"Whenever you're ready." He got in the driver's seat.

London walked back inside her house. Her father was snoring in the living room.

She walked up to him and shook him.

"Goodbye, Dad. The paperwork for everything is on the table. I'm going on a pokemon journey."

"That's nice dear. Make sure to call your mother..." His eyes weren't open yet, and instead he drifted back to sleep.

It was the first nice thing he had said in years to her, even if he was half asleep saying it.

"Take the chestnut box under the cupboard," He said, and sat up. His eyelids then drooped over his eyes, and he went to sleep again.

London opened up the cupboard and took out a shoebox sized chestnut container. It had a lock with a key already in it, and the wood looked like it was still freshly polished. She took it under her arm, and looked back at her father.

She got in the car a minute later, and Jasper drove off to the airport. About midway through she realized the inconvienence of this.

"Jasper, what's going to happen with the car?"

"Oh, one of the maids is going to pick it up," He said. "Besides, I have enough money to buy forty new cars on this card." He held up a black credit card.

"However, that doesn't mean we are home free. Some places don't take credit cards," He said, twisting his face.

They stopped at the airport terminal, a structure made from twisted metal and tinted glass. It rose against the duo, signaling a change in their lives. Whatever the modern building represented, however, would soon be thrown away in the name of progress.

They entered the sliding doors, both of them being eyed by flight agents to ensure that they weren't any threats. They made their way, each with two bags in their hands, stopping at the screening to make sure they weren't terrorists.

"There's a lot of security for just going to the sinnoh region," she noted, before being waved through.

"Well, Kanto's still pretty shook up with the Team Rocket occupation," Jasper responded, as he put his shoes back on.

The two had lunch at the The Old Man and the Wailord, an interesting seafood place with plenty of tales from the high seas. They kept close watch of their time and arrived at the gate with five minutes to spare. They boarded the plane, stored their stuff above in the compartments above, and sat down in their seats, Jasper in the window, London in the middle. There was an empty seat next to the aisle and a family of three sitting across from them. The noises were varied, from buisness men talking on their phone to couples chatting about their trips. Everyone was ready to go.

London noticed a boy putting his stuff in the storage next to theirs. He was tall, lanky and had golden blond hair, spiked up with long sideburns down to his cheeks. He wore a blue jacket with a golden trim and black dress slacks. He looked about the same age as the both of them. London looked over at Jasper.

"Who's that?" She whispered.

"Probably the guy who's sitting next to you. You might as well introduce yourself, It's a 19 hour flight with only one stop in the middle," Jasper said, continuing to fiddle with his Xtransciever.

The kid sat next to London. She started sweating nervously as soon as she laid eyes on his face. It was one of the most handsomest she'd had laid her eyes upon. His eyes were a piercing blue, cheekbones well defined.

"Hi there!" The boy smiled and waved to her.

"H-hello," She barely gasped out. She looked down at her phone.

_Relax. You look like you're going to fall over._

She glanced over at Jasper, who had sent her the text. The boy didn't notice this, he was busy settling himself in the seat.

"So, why are you guys going off to the Sinnoh region," The boy asked. London was left to answer, Jasper had put his headphones on before.

"O-oh, we're just starting on our pokemon journey," London stammered.

"Oh, me too! Did you guys already get your pokemon or not?"

"Not yet."

"I already have mine. Must be nice traveling with someone you know."

"Y-you can come with us! I, m-mean, not that you'd want to..."

"Of course I would! It would save me the trouble of finding friends," He extended his hand out. "I'm Volkner, from Sunyshore City."

"London, from Amaranth Town. Jasper's next to me, he's from there too."

"Oh, so are you two, like, you know, together?" He asked, curious.

"N-no! J-just friends!" Volkner's bluntness was making London stammer even more.

"Oh, that's cool then." Volkner seemed to run out of conversation topics.

"Please buckle your seatbelts. The airplane is about to taxi off the runway. Let us remind our passangers that there is a no pokemon out policy on the plane."

"Did you hear about that? They say somebody accidentally sat on a pokeball with a wailord on it. It was a terrible tragedy," Volkner told her. London started giggling.

"W-why? What did I say?" Volkner stammered.

"Nothing! The thought of a wailord flying is funny," London laughed.

He sighed in relief. "Well, I can see you have a sense of humor. So what's your favorite color?"

"The plane is about to land. Please sit down and buckle your seatbelts. Jasper's emerald eyes flicked open. He looked to his left. London was sleeping on the shoulder of some blond haired person, who was also sleeping. He checked his phone. It was 6 o clock in the morning.

"It seems I slept for an entire day," He said to himself. Eating was on the forefront of his mind. He checked on the two next to him, and made sure they were all buckled in. He then snapped a picture of the two. The action seemed almost necessary, given how cute they looked. _I'm a sucker for things like this,_ he thought to himself.

The plane landed smoothly, and Jasper was forced to wake them up.

"London, who's that?" He asked as he shook her awake.

"Volkner, of Sunyshore," She said groggily. He shook him awake as well.

"Rise and Shine you two, we have breakfast to eat and a bus to catch!"

/2011/11/24/google-search-infographic/

Shinedown's _Save Me_

Rise Against's _Wait for Me_.


	3. Chapter 3

Snow chapter 3

The Waffle House is a staple of American culture. Sitting at truck stops everywhere, it is the best place to enjoy a breakfast and pick up stories from travelers that have seen the road. At the end of the strip mall that was attached to the airport terminal laid one of these hospitable buildings where our three heroes laid, sprawled out from a big breakfast.

"What time is it?" asked Volkner, stuffed.

Volkner had gotten off the plane with them and decided to travel with them, much to London's delight and Jasper's chagrin. Jasper felt like a big brother to London. He didn't want her to be hurt anymore. The more important question is: Would Volkner deal with the damaged goods London brought to the table? He didn't even know everything about her. If London could barely talk to a therapist about her past, how could she hold a relationship up with someone whom she met on the plane. However, Jasper wasn't the one to get into altercations because of his skewed emotions. So he decided to see how the journey would progress.

"Honey, it's nearly 10 o'clock," the waitress said, passing them by. The three sat up immediately.

Jasper exchanged glances with the others. He handed the waitress his credit card. He whispered something to her.

"We're going to be late!" London gasped. The donned their jackets and shuffled out. London ran back to the table she left her ticket on.

_ CRASH!_

She looked at the man who she ran into. She dusted herself off, and helped him up.

"Don't rush, I'm sure you'll get there in time," He said. He retrieved his cane and walked out the door. London walked swiftly to pick up the ticket, and rushed out, where she ran to catch up to her friends.

They got there earlier then they expected.

"See, I told you you would get here in time," The old man who London had ran into leaned on his cane. He appeared to be in his early fifties, and wore a bowler cap with a long black trenchcoat. He had a black suit on him. On the concrete next to him was a suitcase, with 6 out of 10 pokeball slots filled.

"How'd you know?" London asked him, curious.

"This bus is always late," He chuckled. The rest of the passengers congregated around them as the bus as the machine approached. "Would you mind me sitting with you? It's been a while since I felt this energy."

"O-kay," Jasper said slowly. There were no objections.

The four shuffled on the double decker bus, and sat in the back. The bus had the set up of booth seating, with spacious seating and another booth across the aisle. A square table jutted out from the metal of the bus. It was designed for a long trip. The bottom floor of the bus was a dining center.

"I expect a long journey. Order whenever you are ready. You should open those packages you got in the mail as well, unless things have changed," He said.

"What should we call you, sir?" Jasper asked.

"Many know me as the Traveler. I have walked many lands and fought many battles. But my name is Herman Grant. I would prefer it if you called me Mr. Grant."

"Well, let's open the boxes now," London took his suggestion, and pulled out hers. The other two followed suit, pulling out theirs as well.

_ The trio of adventurers received:_

_THE BOTTOMLESS HANDBAGS AND BACKPACKS_

_A XTRATRANCIEVER CHIP WITH MODIFICATIONS_

_POKENAV, WITH THE UPDATED POKEDEX FEATURE_

_A COMPLEMENTARY POTION_

_10 POKEBALLS EACH_

The bottomless handbags and backpacks contained different pouches and compartments labeled for different stuff. These items were seemingly bottomless, allowing our heros to store all their shit in one place. Their suitcases full of clothes were now to be stored in the clothes area of the bag. The bags connected with the pokenav, allowing the device to organize everything, find it, and push it to the top of the bag. However, it did nothing to improve the items condition. If a pokeball was broken, it would go in and come out broken.

Each of the trio plugged the Xtratranciever chip into their existing phones. It added the Xtratransciever functions to the phone.

The PokeNav was now the size and shape of a square nintendo ds, a game system used in worlds other than this. It flipped open and had a camera on the front for pokemon identification. It had a condition checker, a map of the region, match call feature, and it functioned as an internet browser and a pokemon encyclopedia. It easily fit in any pocket. It also held the trainer card in the front, but that was something they didn't have yet. The pokedex feature needed to be activated by a professor as well.

They stuffed the potions and the pokeballs in their bags. Jasper and Volkner sat their backpacks next to them, London the handbag.

The next two hours were filled with lunch and a nap, as Traveler soon persuaded everyone to nap.

_DING DING DING_!

"The bus will stop in 15 minutes,"

Volkner was zapped out of his drowsy state. He lightly shook London off his shoulder. She slid down his chest.

"_Abort Abort Abort!" _He thought.

London's head slid all the way to his lap. Just then the traveler poked an eye open.

"It's not what it looks like!" Volkner stammered.

"Mmhmm," He grumbled, and closed his eye.

Volkner tried as quickly as he could to move the sleeping girl somewhere else less scandalous in nature. Jasper woke up to London's head on Volkner's shoulder.

"She's really fond of you," He admitted as he stretched his arms in the air.

The traveler woke up soon after.

"It's time to get off," He said, looking at Volkner.

"London, wake up," Volkner shook her gently.

The three stepped to the front of the bus. Jasper waved his credit card in front of the lady.

"Siiir, we don't take credit cards." The woman said in a sassy voice.

"I'll be paying for them," Mr. Grant pulled out a couple of bills.

"But-" Jasper interjected.

"I have more than enough of it," He chuckled.

With Jasper's pride defeated, the four went off the bus and walked into Sandgem Town, the first stop on their visit to the Sinnoh region. With one small step, they have leaped into the world of pokemon.

"I will accompany you. It would be nice to see someone else's passions for pokemon again,"

"I don't think this is a good idea, guys..." Volkner was drowned out by a crowd of fangirls passing on opposite them.

"MAXIE, MAXIE, HE'S OUR MAN! IF HE CAN'T TURN SEA TO LAND, NOBODY CAN!"

"You've already been here right? So you could be our guide!" London said.

"Yes, and I suppose..."

"It's done then." Jasper finished the agreement.

"So what should we do first?" London asked.

_PART 1: THE CURIOUS CASE OF PROFESSOR ROWAN_

"I think we should go get our pokemon first," Volkner said. Rowan's lab is just up that hill.

The four walked into the lab and were nearly trampled by a research aide running out of the door.

"STEP INTO MY OFFICE! Oh this intercom is so fun!" A gruff voice said over the intercom.

"Hello, I'm Professor Rowan, have you seen my nursery aide? I mean research aide,"

"Professor, are you okay?" London asked.

The notable professor was sitting on a throne of books, and had several mirrors scattered across his desk. Papers were everywhere, boxes scattered haphazardly across the room. The four stood in the door way, afraid to go any nearer.

"Oh, great," Mr. Grant groaned. He stepped in the room. "Rowan, I'd like our pokemon and gear."

"Oh, lookie here, it's Mista Grant here again. Reminding me of the times! And with kids!"

"No, these are my friends. I'd like our stuff please."

"I was up late counting...numbers. I remember seeing three ghosts. However! You scrubs must pick something up for me? Do you know what that is? Do you know what this is? Answer me."

"No w-" Jasper was cut off.

"SHUT UP! Damn, these kids with no respect these days..." He picked up a straw and started snorting a white substance off the mirror.

"DO YOU SEE WHAT I'M DOING? I'M DOING COKE! AND DRINKING COKE!" He pointed to a red can on the table. He slammed his fist down.

"NOW FIND THE PERSON WITH THE SHIPMENT OF MY STUUUUUUFF!" He screamed. "And then you can have your pokemon.

"Who would have your shipment?" Grant asked.

"Check the nursery aide. She ran out cause she wouldn't say hello to big papa."

They easily found the research aide outside the lab and took the crate from her.

"GOOD! You found it!" Rowan sounded overjoyed. He put the crate on the table and opened it.

He grabbed the pokenavs from the clips on the trainers' bags.

"Here!" He tossed them on the table after shoving a chip in them. He tossed three cards in front of them.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS CRATE HAS IN IT?" Rowan asked.

"Possibly our pokemon?" London tipped her head.

"Seriously, why are we here again?" Jasper asked.

"NO! NO NO NO NO NO NO NOOOOOOO! Some times I feel like the last sane man in an insane world. THIS, YOU FOOLS! THIS HAS COKE IN IT! I have everything with coke in it. I'm drinking Coke. My Toast has coke on it. Ice cream? Coke sprinkles. Coffee? ADD TWO CREAMS AND A CUP OF COCAINE! I LOVE IT. " He pressed his face in the container and arose, his face coated with the white substance. Rowan stuck two straws up his nose and made a noise like an angry Mamoswine. He snorted a ton of coke out of the box. He then delicately placed the crate on the ground. He grabbed a brown box.

"What's your names?"

"London Olim Vina, of Amaranth Town."

"Volkner, of Sunyshore City."

"Jasper Augustus Verde, of Amaranth Town."

"Mr. Grant, I know what you want." Rowan shoved an egg and a piece of paper into it's hand. "Took a long time to get this. There are the moves it knows. However, it is almost uncontrollable and it might or might not be able to evolve. There haven't been any special requests like this, so I haven't been able to study it." He added.

"You fools!" He turned to them.

"LONDON! YOU GET A SWABLU!" He tossed the pokeball into her hands.

"JASPER! YOU GET A SANDILE!" He tossed a pokeball into his hands.

"VOLKNER! YOU GET THIS PARCEL FROM YOUR DAD!" He threw a small brown box into volkner's arms. "YOU GET AN ELECTRIKE!"

"If I may ask, what did Morgan get?" London asked, not wanting to anger the already crazed professor.

"AN AXEW AND A BUNCH OF COKE! Actually, he didn't get the coke, only a axew!"

"NOW LEAVE ME WITH MY WAIFU, IF I DIDN'T MENTION, IS COKE! I'M GOING TO F-"

The three were pushed out of the lab by Mr. Grant.

"Okay, now that we're done with the fucking crackhead, we can do something else. Let's visit Lake Acuity and see what's happening over there," Grant said curtly.

The three didn't question his idea.

"Landmass, come out!" Grant threw a pokeball in the air, and a Torterra came out. It looked around lazily. Grant climbed up a ladder on the tortoise's back.

"Get on," He said. The three climbed up on top of the shell. The tree had a small gazebo built around it. Inside was a ladder.

"Now, let me lay down some ground rules. I've been through this region too many times to fight. I will simply watch. I will not fight for you. Second, these pokemon that live on Landmass's back, they are my friends. Do not disturb their habitat. You can sleep outside or inside his shell, It makes no difference. I will use Secret Power for each of your rooms later. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir!" The all said.

The traveler read the list as the other three marveled at the feeling of riding on a pokemon. It was scribbled in Rowan's coke handwriting, which was big and neat as he used it to make letters of coke and snort it off. People thought the white powder falling out of his research-Ha!

_Earnest,_

_This zigzagoon knows:_

_Simple Beam – turns ability to simple, I would explain the rest but I'm too preoccupied with snorting_

_COKE Icy Wind COKE Surf COKE Hyperfang COKE Superfang COKE Charm COKE Uproar COKE Hyper Voice COKE Roar of Time COKE Seed Bomb COKE Rest COKE Snort I mean snore COKE Sleep Talk COKE Gunk Shot COKE Extreme Speed COKE Rock Climb COKE Pursuit COKE Belly Drum COKE Ice Beam COKE Thunderbolt COKE Psychic COKE And all it's other natural moves. You have no idea how many pokemon had to fuck to get this pokemon. It was extremely painful. _

_-Love Coke,_

_ Rowan_

The man winced at the name. His old name. But that was a story for another time.

"Hey, look over there!" Volkner shouted.

_PART 2: PUT YOUR LIGHTERS IN THE SKY!_

The continent pokemon approached a clearing in the forest. There were places the overgrown tortoise couldn't go.

"Come on, let's mingle with the crowd!" London shouted as she slid down the ladder.

"Wait up!" Jasper and Volkner both shouted as they tried to follow her.

In the southeast corner ridge was a huge gathering of people. A man dressed in a long red and black long sleeved toga was talking into a megaphone.

"My friends! The Sinnoh region will be our homeland! Remember four years ago? Cyrus ascended to spear pilar and awoke the two mythical dragons. They have disappeared back into the altar, bringing with them this climate change that threatens to turn your region into the arctic! I see more snovers and cyrogonals everywhere I go. Will we wait for this region, your homeland, to be buried under an avalanche?" The man asked the people.

"NO!" The crowd shouted.

"We will dig into Mt. Cornet and bring the change of the climate by turning it into a volcano. Then only will the weather change."

"Can you believe this guy?" Jasper said.

"That's what I said when I first defeated them," A girl said next to him. She was a head shorter then Jasper, with brown hair. She wore a red blouse, covered by a jacket that went down to her thighs, unbottoned. Short tight biker shorts covered the top part of her legs while the knee high black boots with buckles covered the lower part. She had a bottomless bag around the back of her waist and she had a scarf wrapped around her neck.

"I'm May. Me and my rival defeated these guys in Hoeen." She smiled.

"Jasper. How about we talk somewhere we can hear each other?" He suggested.

The two went off elsewhere.

London and Volkner were left alone together.

"I don't fully understand. Let's go up and talk to him!" London took this opprotunity to grab Volkner's hand and weave her wave through the now dispersing crowd.

They stood in front of the man who seemed in charge of the entire operation. His back was turned.

"Excuse me, sir? What do you mean by new volcano?"

"Ah, an intrested couple!" The red haired man said. The two blushed at the word 'couple'.

"No, it's not what you think-" Volkner started, but he was cut off by the man.

"Listen! My name is Maxie. I am the leader of Team Magma! The only team dedicated to helping the world rid the over saturation of unnecessary pokemon. Doing this would need a drastic approach, which is expanding the contienent. Only lakes like this will be water type habitats! We will dig into Mt. Cornet and find the deepest chamber of the ruins that lie there. Then we will awaken multiple heatran with this!" He held up a magma stone.

He crouched down next to them so he could whisper to them. "You two look like promising trainers. Join me, and we can rule the world together! Think of highways and rivers, lakes and castles, skyscrapers and oasises! We don't aim to get rid of all the water, just enough so an industrial boom comes about. Think of conncting cave systems, mineral discoveries and ancient pokemon. I could promote you to admin status! We could live like _kings._" He holds the words above their heads, like an apple within reach.

London was enchanted with visions of her and Volkner ruling the world, but Volkner quickly saw through it. "Let's think about it," He said curtly. Now he was the one pulling London's hand.

The two left the mining operation at the lakefront, and retreated back to Grant's torterra. He was smoking a square pipe on the behemoth's head, while it was sleeping peacefully. It looked like it was having a good dream of some memories.

"Where's Jasper?" He opened one eye from his reclining position. He was cradling the egg in his arms.

The two looked around. "Not with us."

"Send him a text to go to the end of Sandgem. You two, off my pokemon. We'll meet you at that new forest that popped up. I'd like him to enjoy a bit of rest."

The two headed up past Sandgem, training their new pokemon against generic normals and trainers. London had affectionately named her swablu 'Cloud', an unoriginal but fitting name. Volkner named his Electrike, 'Noble'. He also had another pokeball with him, his pikachu named 'Lightning'. They grinded up their pokemon a few levels, and traveled to the end of the route. A trainer dressed in a black zip up light coat and shorts with swimwear spandex underneath approached them. He had palm tree of hair and wore a flat cap visor. He approached the two.

"You look like you have some potential...Here, give me your number." He ordered.

They handed over their number. "My name's Samuel. Visit us in the Theatre when you feel you are ready. It's just past Snowpoint City. If you need help, call me." He walked forward into the forest.

"That was weird," Volkner noted. "So this is the forest?"

"The sign says Bewilder Forest, so I guess it is." London said, looking at the sign.

"Let's wait for the others then," Volkner resigned, and sat down with Noble. Swablu rested on London's head. They laid down together in the grass clearing. Heads next to each other, sprawled out on the grass they looked up into the sky until they were greeted by a racoon pokemon.

"Arf!" It panted.

"Hello, you two." The traveler had arrived.

Meanwhile, May had Jasper pinned to a tree, kissing him furiously. Their clothes were half off and tussled.

"Wow, you're really a pro at this," She said, taking a breath.

The Xtranciever rung once. Jasper pulled it out and checked it. "They want us to go to that new forest," He groaned.

"Can't we just turn the phone off and have fun?" May suggested, cocking her head.

"No, London will be worried sick that someone else abandoned her," Jasper looked down at his shoes.

May grabbed his chin and rose it up to her face. Her eyes gazed into his. "I can't go with you there," she said.

"Why not?"

"I'm meeting friends, from the past. I'm sure you understand."

"I do."

She grabbed the cell from his hand and played around with it. She kissed him one last time, and pressed it into the palm of his hand. "I enjoyed my time with you. Call me?"

"You can count on it." He reasurred her.

She drew a pokeball from her bag and straightened her clothes. "Find me in Pastoria. Swellow, Fly!"

The girl disappeared from him. He straightened his tie, and fixed his coat.

He began singing as he stuck his hands in his pockets, and walked out of the clearing.

"Rape me, Rape me my friend..."


	4. Chapter 4

The four looked up at the massive grove of trees ahead of them. The newly hatched zigzagoon was impossible to control -both in behavior and move wise for the time being. A last minute call by the traveler confirmed that Rowan had stored the egg in one of his cocaine crates. The professor said it would wear off with some training. Mr. Grant could only hope he was correct. He called the pokemon Metronome, as he never knew what would come out of it next.

London and Volkner had caught sight of a sulky Jasper coming over the hill, without his newfound friend.

"Where's May?" Volkner asked.

"She's in Pastoria," He responded, and said no more about the subject.

The four stood up from their small picnic, and stretched their arms. Torterra seemingly disappeared in favor of a Camerupt named Krakatoa. "He couldn't fit," was the traveler's excuse. The zigzagoon slept in one of the traveler's pockets.

"Well, let's go in," Mr. Grant stretched his arms, and hobbled headfirst into the darkness of the forest. The Camerupt gave a cry and followed, smoke bellowing from the craters on his back. The other three followed.

The first part of the forest was remarkably unique. The air was filled with spectres and had a mystical air about it. Stantler and Sawsbuck ran across paths, not willing to be captured nor willing to waste their energy on rookies. There were two paths to take.

"I'm sure you guys won't mind if explore a bit? I've never seen this place before," Mr. Grant marveled. He ingnored a protesting Jasper and wandered off into the left path.

"I guess we should go right," Volkner shrugged. The other two followed him into the grove of trees.

A Duskull came in front of them, holding a lantern. He orbited around Jasper three times, indicating that he wanted to come with him.

"Very well then," Jasper stated, and tapped a pokeball to his head. The ghost went into the ball and was captured without any trial. Jasper typed something into his pokenav and then closed it and put it back into the holster on his bag. The Duskull came out with its trademark lanturn.

"What did you do?" London asked.

"Oh, every time you catch a pokemon it adds it to your overhead screen and asks you for a nickname. It also displays it's stats and moves," He explained.

"So did you name it?" London asked.

"Skull. And you use this in a battle," He added.

"Wait, so you battle with this thing?" London looked down at the pokenav.

"Of course," Volkner stated. "Here, watch m-"

"Oh no. We aren't going to go through a shitty generic 'how to battle' tutorial again. Just show her when we battle someone," Jasper sighed.

However, upon further exploration they saw no generic NPCs around. No youngsters bragging about their shorts, nor any bug catchers bragging about their shitty worm pokemon were lying in wait.

"This is odd," Jasper said. "There isn't anyone here and we must be in the middle of the forest by now."

"Just keep swimming," Volkner voiced.

The three pushed on as the absence of pokemon suddenly got more and more noticable.

"Shouldn't we have encountered something by now?" London asked quizzically, running around in circles in the patch of tall grass. The Swablu on her head slept through the entire ordeal of being spun around.

The three walked down the path until a small green object hit London square in the stomach.

"OW!" She doubled over.

"London! Are you ok?" Volkner quickly jumped to the girl's side. She appeared unharmed, apart from having the wind knocked out of her.

The ghost circled around the object that had hit their friend, a Natu of extremely small proportions. It was knocked out from the impact. Jasper walked up to it. It twitched. London and Volkner, now up from the ground, looked down at the small bird pokemon.

"We should at least find out what it's running from, at least," Jasper said. "That is, if it's running from something or it's just a mindless bird."

He knelt down and sprayed a potion on it. The Natu poked up immediately. It hopped frantically up and down.

"Nat, nat, nat, natu!" It squawked. It moved frantically around the path in front of them, trying to describe something to them.

"You're running from something?" London tried her best to understand.

The bird pokemon nodded up and down. He chirped once and flapped his wings.

"You want us to help you?" London translated again.

It nodded. It chirped twice.

"And in turn, you'll help us?" London spoke once more.

The Natu nodded.

"You cannot have gathered all that from a simple three chirps," Jasper stated in disbelief.

"You learned that Skull wanted to travel with you and it was silent," London retaliated.

Jasper groaned, having lost.

"So how do you do this capturing business?" London asked, drawing a pokeball from her bag.

"Just tap it on the head with the pokeball and let it rock. Under normal circumstances you would throw it. Why didn't you watch the tutorials?" Jasper explained.

"What tutorials?" London asked.

"The ones on the pokenav! Damnit, London, haven't you looked at it before now?" He sighed.

"Nope," She shrugged. "I'll look at them later."

She tapped the pokeball on the birds head. It went in willingly. London tapped the pokeballs white button on the front, and a red beam of light sent out the pokemon. After a quick tapping on the pokenav, all the necessary info was learned and a name was deemed onto

The caravan of pokemon and trainers walked further down the path. A hopping Natu leaded up the head, followed by a blue haired girl with a fluffy pokemon hat. A Duskull with a lantern silently floated behind her, with a sandile and a blond kid trudged along behind him. Finally, a prowling electrike and a spiky haired kid trailed them. A set of loud voices stopped them. The heroes hid behind bushes quickly, just outside of a clearing.

"Ryoku, the preperations have been done. All the Stantler have been captured and are ready to be transported via Ponyta." A squeaky voice said.

"Good, Good. Send the cargo off. I will be waiting in by Oreburgh to put our plan into place." Ryoku said in a Sidious-like voice.

"Keep watch with your men until the final caravan has left. Everything should proceed as I have foreseen."

The trio still heard Ryoku grumbling as he walked away. "Something something dark side. Something something completed."

"Ok, now that that their leader is gone, we can defeat them." Volkner said, and stood ready to jump out.

"Yeah, and face all those grunts on the caravans," Jasper dismissed him. "Let's wait until half of the caravans are gone."

The three peaked out of the bushes. A dozen or so plasma grunts were taking down a bunch of tents.

"Why don't we need to rush them now?" Volkner suggested.

"No, we find a better way." Jasper said. "Listen, in video games bad guys are always distracted by stupid things. If we can find a shiny object to distract them with, maybe we can sneak up and free the pokemon!"

"How about your duskull?" Volkner's eyes narrowed to the small lantern he'd been carrying with him since Jasper captured him.

Skull's eyes widened and he frantically shook his head. He made motions with his sleeve.

"Obviously that isn't the shiniest object." Jasper said. Skull sighed in relief.

"However, I'm pretty sure London has a pretty distracting object we can use..." Jaspers eyes glinted.

"Oh no, not this again. Jasper, I'm not doing that again." London rolled her eyes.

"There's nothing that could convince you? Not even Natu?" He pleaded.

"Leave Chirp out of this! We don't even know if his teleport is accurate!" London vocalized.

"Not even a kiss from Volkner?" Both of them froze up. "No wonder we'll never save those pokemon," He sighed.

"Okay, I'll do it! B-but not for any k-kiss or a-anything." Behind her, Volkner let out a huge breath of air.

A few minutes later, preparations were set.

"Hey boys, I'm a lonely girl in the dark forest and I'm getting attack by pokemon! Maybe help me out and I'll show you my boobs!" London yelled from the other side of the clearing.

"Again?" Volkner inquired.

"I'll tell you about that summer later," Jasper told him. "Or maybe she will."

The mass of grunts were unable to register that they had already scared away all the pokemon and rushed towards the sound of her voice. London materialized in the air and fell on top of Volkner. Volkner's hands found the worst place possible to grab onto her with.

With no shirt at all.

"Hey!" London blushed and quickly got up. A quick duck behind a tree and now she was now free to look at without shame. Volkner laid on the ground, absolutely speechless.

"Why'd I have to be topless anyway?!" She shouted.

"Because last time you got seen and the ruse was blown off! Volkner get up, they'll find us if we don't stay in the clearing too long."

Volkner straighted himself immediately. He refused to look at London out of fear for extreme judgement.

The three rushed in and were greeted with the same number of mindless grunts spurting gibberish.

"Team Plasma rulez!"

"I joined this team to be really edgy!"

"I hate my life!"

"LET'S QUASH THESE TWERPS!" They all shouted together.

Volkner immediately took London's side. "Jasper, you take that one. I've already battled, so me and London will take these two!"

"It's _London and I_, but whatever." Jasper rolled his eyes.

A Sandile named Shades quickly took his place by Jasper's sides. He had no trouble taking out the Zubat with a well placed Rage. Meanwhile, London was struggling to score a blow on Patrat. Volkner was handling the battle smoothly with Electrike.

"Noble, Tackle!" Volkner commanded. The dog like pokemon struck hard and fast, hitting the Grunt's rattata hard.

"Cloud, uh..." London looked down at the pokenav, unsure of what she should press. Two moves were listed on the screen. Growl, Peck, Astonish, and Sing. The bird pokemon was dodging the Patrat's blows, but it would soon be exhausted and prone to the lookout pokemon's attack.

"London, there are two types of moves. Attack moves and moves that inflict status effects. Use an attack move! There'll be time for status moves later!" Volkner motioned to her.

London was an absolute nervous wreck in this first time. She closed her eyes and picked a move on the screen. The Swablu got wind of the command via a robotic tone.

"Peck," The pokenav said.

The Cloud swooped down and slammed into the patrat, who flew backwards into the grunt. He flew into the air, hitting his trainer on his way down.

_TEAM PLASMA GRUNTS WERE DEFEATED._

_SOME RANDOM AMOUNT OF POKE WAS RECIEVED._

The three powered through the other dozen of grunts there, London struggling less and less with battling. She didn't hesitate with the last grunt, wiping out the Koffing with a well placed astonish.

Each of them with their pokemon now several levels up, they wiped the sweat off their brows. They then approached the red uniformed kid tied up in the back of the caravan. Jasper pulled the gag off of his mouth.

"By the looks of your uniform, you're a Team Magma Grunt. Start talking."

"Gladly. Just let me free, I won't attack you, I promise." The grunt spat out.

"How can we trust you?" London asked.

"You can." He said.

A minute later he was sitting on the back of the cart, ropes and for some reason a cat tail around him. He three silenly watched as he hopped off the cart and walked up to the front and took a pack off of a Ponyta's back. He slung it around his back and withdrew a pokeball from his bag. He tapped it on the head of one of the Ponyta's, and it went back into the ball. He unhooked the harnesses from the other ponyta as well. They ran off, happy that they were free. He returned to the trio.

"My name's Lawrence. I'm a Team Magma Lieutenant," He stated in a country accent.

"I didn't know teams had other ranks then obvious leader and useless grunt," Jasper remarked smartly. Volkner punched him in the arm.

"Anyway, I am a scout and I was supposed to figure out what Team Plasma is doing here, but I foolishly got captured and they gathered what were free roaming Ponyta to cart off all the Stantler they somehow were able to manage to catch in cages. Probably salt blocks, Stantlers have an affinity for that stuff. Team Plasma's plan is to create a big illusion in Oreburgh city. They're searching for something in that town. Is that sufficent enough for you?" He finished.

"I guess," Jasper shrugged.

"So you guys saved my life, that means I owe you," He said, and then snatched London's Xtranciever out of her pocket.

"Hey!" She said.

"Hey, call me maybe. Like when you need a favor," He said, and put it back as quickly as he took it. "But seriously, talk to me over the phone or in Jubilife City. Not here. I need to report back to my boss."

He made a move to leave.

"NOT SO FAST CRIMINAL SCUM!" A loud voice came from the edges of the clearing. The other fifty grunts emerged from the forest clearing.

"Volkner, do something!" London said.

"We can't possibly take on all these grunts at once, London. We better surrender."

"Yeah, but I can!" Lawrence announced arrogantly.

"No, you can't. You were captured a minute ago, dipshit." Jasper reminded him. "However, I'm not going down without a fight." Shades and Skull rose out of the ground, summoned for their final stand.

"Me neither!" London shouted. She threw Chirp out while Cloud rose from atop his perch on her head.

"I guess I am as well." Volkner sent Electrike in front of them.

"You, girl! Show us your rack!" A grunt shouted.

"Yeah, you promised!" Another voice emerged from the slowly approaching crowd.

"I LIKE CHOCOLATE MILK!" Another grunt shouted.

Ryoku appeared in front of the crowd. "Looks like these children want a fight! Execute Order 66!"

Watchogs, Golbats, Trubbishs and Liepards all advanced slowly on the group, until they were inches away from the four who were back to back.

"My, my, what do we have here." A voice pierced the air behind them.

"Ha! An old man!" A grunt noticed.

"Well, yes, for you. But I was talking about you blatantly attacking my friends." The voice said.

"Mr. Grant!" The three realized at once.

"Who's Mr. Grant?" Lawrence asked, but he quickly looked behind him and saw the old man.

"Ridiculous! So you came here to die with your friends?" Ryoku boasted proudly. His Kadabra led the group of advancing pokemon.

"Obviously not. However, I can't let you hurt them. I'll give you one chance to back down." Grant said defiantly.

"Charge up your attacks, my boys and girls...er underlings! This is going to be one spectacular explosion!" Ryoku said, his arms raised in his big purple puffy coat. His mustache twitched in anticipation.

"Can we at least see her tits first?" A grunt asked.

"Yeah, lift up your shirt!" Another grunt jeered.

"Where the bitches at?"

"SHUT UP! YOU'LL HAVE PLENTY OF TIME TO SEE TITS ELSEWHERE!" He shouted at the grunts

"Jeez, sorry." One grunt grumbled.

"I warned you." The traveler took out a black pokeball and threw it in front of the four.

A Zigzagoon popped out. Even the trio looked betrayed.

"BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Laughter arose from the crowd.

"That's what's gonna save your youngsters? A lowly Zigzagoon?" Ryoku said in between laughs.

"Of course," Grant chuckled. "Hyper Beam."

"Oh, look, how scary. The pokemon behind the move has to have power as well, you old geezer!" Ryoku mentioned.

Two beams came from the forest and obliterated the first line of grunts and their pokemon. A third came from the Zigzagoon, who had finally settled down enough from it's coke incubatory to listen to Grant. The smaller beam hit one grunt and his pokemon, but it was enough to knock them both out.

"Flamethrower! Earth Power." Grant commanded as a Camerupt and Torterra stomped their way out of the trees.

Magma rose up from the ground and fire engulfed the rest of the grunts as each of their pokemon and themselves were sent literally to hell.

Ryoku and a band of survivers took this time to retreat the battlefield, screaming in terror.

The Zigzagoon sauntered its way back to Grant and jumped in front of him.

"You did good, Zags." He said as he knelt down and patted the tiny racoons head.

The entire field was full of smoke and dirt, but Grant fixed it by having Landmass use Growth. The land instantly rearranged itself and was rockier, but full of life like before.

"How could..." Lawrence was left speechless.

"Thank you for your help," Jasper walked up to him.

"No need to thank me. You're lucky I got here when I did. You could have died." Grant had a serious look on his face for a moment, but he smiled down at them.

He opened up the cages and pokemon flooded out of the doors, all escaping into the forest. All but one.

A lone elekid tugged at Volkner's coat.

"He saw your bravery. He wants to help you out."

"Sure," Volkner said. "I'll have you."

A small tap with a ball and the elekid now came out.

"Well, I'm out," Lawrence told them, saddling his Ponyta.

"Strangers don't need much reason to become allies in battle. I hope to see you again, my friend," Grant stated.

Lawrence finally showed an emotion other than pure arrogance. "Thanks gramps," He grinned. Then he spurred his Ponyta off, riding into the sunset.

The four now found themselves in a clearing outside the forest, the land tortoise resting between a bunch of rocks. They were hidden from view by anyone passing through. Jubilife City lay a short ways up ahead.

"Zags, Secret Power!" Grant instructed. The Zigzagoon unleashed a slicing attack in the depths of Landmass's shell.

"Does this hurt him?" London asked.

"A bit. It's like loosing a baby tooth. If he looses part of the inside, then he'll just grow larger to support more life on the outside. They also grow with age. How do you think he got this big?"

"I just assumed he was exposed to drugs," Volkner said absentmindedly.

"My dear boy! I smoke nothing more than a pipe and a cigar. And that's occasionally. Unlike some 24-hour a day addicts..." He grumbled.

Zags finished his move and moved onto another X on the wall, marking another room. The inside of Torterra's shell was rocky, like a cave. Evidence of Grant's living there existed in the forefront of the shell, where Grant had taken a third of the space. Moonlight flooded in through one hatch on the top, and through the first room where three windows laid.

Removing the moss that covered the doorway, Volkner and London walked into the new room, marveling around at what the small raccoon did. There was a small window up top, but other than that the room was spacious and bare. Computers somehow spawned in corners of the room.

"Here's a shelf for your bed," The traveler said. "I'm sure Jubilife and Vielstone have furniture for sale. Just use these pillows and blankets for now. Also, I'm afraid that Jasper's room, however small it may be, and yours take up almost 1/3 of his shell space. You'll have to wait for more space and another room, I presume." He grimaced at the thought of his pokemon not being big enough.

London and Volkner nodded off more slowly than usual. A sudden shift from the tortoise pokemon soon found London and Volkner in an another awkward position- on top of each other faces inches apart, they leaned into what would seem to be an inevitable kiss, gravity guiding them. Moments from their mouths touching each other, they heard a voice from another room.

"Not on my pokemon."

Volkner quickly rolled off and apologized. "I'm s-so s-sorry," He stammered.

"It's f-fine," London responded.

"M-maybe another night," She whispered.

"I'll go back up," Volkner rose and prepared to climb up to his sleeping area.

"Y-you can sleep down here if you want," London was barely able to control herself.

"Yeah, I'm already here, aren't I?"

"That you are," she giggled.

The awkwardness faded into oblivion as they slept on the floor together, their backs touching. Moonlight filtered through the window as the giant Torterra slept, and a city just meters away stayed up to watch over them.


	5. Chapter 5

Jubilife City: The Slushie Ordeal!

Outside freezing rain pelted the exterior of the tortoise's shell. Trudging along the path, he hoped to make enough movement to wake the four currently sleeping in his rock shell. Landmass stopped and moved his eyes to the sky. It only looked like it was getting worse.

Inside, the three who were still sleeping felt vibrations, but little else. Jasper had already arisen and made a beeline for the ladder in the hallway. Both of the other rooms were locked shut, an old fashioned bar preventing them from being opened. The duskull followed him, illuminating the hallway while a sandile waddled along behind them.

The green eyed boy opened the hatch and was immediately startled by the amount of slush on the to Torterra's shell. The grass pokemon was going to, literally, freezing to death.

"More of these fucking climate changes," Jasper grumbled, and slipped back inside to change. A few minutes later he and his pokemon were trying to negate the effects of the snow anyway they could, dressed in winter gear. Jasper shoveled slush off of the back of the pokemon, The sand croc was trying to summon a Sandstorm to shield it, but it wasn't fairing to well either. The ghost was busy melting snow off with carefully place Will-o-Wisps, trying not to burn the tortoise.

"What a perfect start to a perfect day," Jasper groaned. He looked at the hatch. If he could maybe wake up Mr. Grant, he could return his pokemon and they could travel on something else. Maybe he had a cart that his Camerupt pulled. Something that wasn't affected so adversly by this ice. Still, he had to make sure torterra wasn't in danger of fainting for the time being.

Inside, London woke up to the face of a sleeping Volkner. She debated what to do. If she moved she would wake him up, but if she stayed here it would look like she was watching him. That was, until she noticed his bare shoulders above the covers. Sleeping with no shirt on. She wasn't any better, sleeping in her usual t-shirt and panties getup, but they were both exposed to each other.

Her priority now was to get clothes on before Volkner woke up. She silently rose up and tip-toed slowly their bags in the corner of the room. She bent over and slowly twitched the zipper.

_ZIP!_

Damn, It would be too loud to open quickly. She slowly dragged the zipper across the teeth, the mouth of the bag slowly opening more and more until it was gaping open like the maw of a Croconaw. She grabbed the pokenav and quietly opened it. The blue haired girl shuffled through the screens until she found the bag inventory screen, and quickly pulled out some clean undergarments, a blue pea coat, skinny blue corduroys, and a white button down blouse. She pulled out her trusty hairbrush as well. Silently, the girl picked up her clothes and moved them to the rock shelf, and sat on it.

Unfortunately there was no way around this. Despite how big the room was, any further navigation around it would alert Volkner to her presence. She stared at his face for a moment. She slowly stripped herself of her clothes, and replaced her bottom part first. After squeezing into the corduroys, the bra and top came next. She slipped the articles around her body and after snapping a couple clasps together and putting buttons through their appropriate holes, she was finally dressed. She pulled two long white boots out of the bag and slipped out of the room with her stuff.

The door was closed silently as she slid down it to the floor. She sighed in relief and began to brush her hair.

Little to her knowledge Volkner was awake that entire time, trying to avoid a straight confrontation with her. They weren't lovers yet, and this situation was just an entire cocktease for him. London bending over to get her clothes, squeezing her ass into those tight pants. Volkner knew that thoughts of these were indecent, but London got away with his heart. She also took up too much fanservice time, and if this were a wacky anime show, blood would have been flowing out Volkner's nose like a dam broke.

What didn't tug at Volkner's heartstrings was the big throbbing problem he had in his sweatpants. He quickly changed into something more hiding, his usual outfit and waited outside the door for London to move from blocking it. The two were destined to stay in a stalemate across rooms until a cry pierced the air.

"TOOOOOOOOOOORRRR!" The entire floor they were standing on shook violently.

London and Jasper both rushed out, London having scampered off from the floor. The two quickly ascended the ladder and found themselves unable to open the hatch. They slid back down.

"What do we do?" London asked.

"We wake up the traveler! He has to know how to fix this!" Volkner told her.

"What? No! Haven't you seen how cranky old men get when they're woken up?"

"You have a better idea?"

"Let's check Jasper's room."

They peaked into the doorway. Jasper wasn't there. They looked out his window as well.

Snow. Snow piled up all along the landscape. It must have been at least two or three feet deep. Volkner squinted his eyes, the amount of white light entering his eyes was almost enough to blind him.

Meanwhile, Jasper was panting on top. Every time he tried to clean off the Torterra's head, More just fell from the tree. It had to be in the red right now. Snow piled on top of it, and there was no way Jasper could possibly get it all off by now. The only hope was to find the hatch. He had recalled both of his pokemon midway through his job- Sandile shared the same disadvantage as torterra and he was weakened much more quickly due to his weak defense stat. Skull had lasted a bit longer but was still prone to the weather conditions.

"Jubilife City's just over the hill," He noted. He knelt down to the tortoise.

"We're almost there, buddy."

"Torrr..." The pokemon groaned weakly. He collapsed.

London and Jasper, losing their footing, slid right down into the Traveler, who had just opened his door.

"Oof," He grunted.

He got up, and turned around to an opening on Torterra's side. It came out to one of the tortoise's collapsed legs. His room was filled with trinkets and amenities that the others didn't have in their simple rooms.

Grant jumped down with surprising agility from the creatures leg, and tapped a black pokeball

to the head of Landmass.

"You did good. I'm sorry," He whispered to the ball. Grant trudged alone up the hill silently and took the first right to a pokecenter. The trio followed him, Jasper adding his balls to the counter as well.

"I'm sorry sir, but it looks like you'll have to stay here for a little while. We need to run tests to make sure you're pokemon's okay. Looks like this is the first time in a while you've taken him to a pokecenter," She grimaced, delivering the news to old man.

"Here you go, sir," The nurse bowed as Jasper got his two pokemon back from the machine.

"Hey! Why can't you just pop him in the machine?" London accused.

"This Torterra hasn't been to the pokecenter in a long time. He may have adverse effects to the medicine we give him, since it looks like all he has been healed with are berries," The nurse explained to her.

"I ain't using modern medicine on an old fashioned pokemon. It just doesn't sit right with me," The traveler grumbled. The nurse raised an eyebrow, but she left it at that. She had no right to say how others could train their pokemon.

The four took their leave and somehow Jasper led them to one of the most expensive hotels in the sinnoh region.

"Are you out of your mind, Jasper? Do you know how much this will cost?" London reprimanded him as they strode across the marble floors. The chandelier hanging above them was made out of many different gemstones and gold pieces.

"A simple inn would do the trick,"

"Why do we have to settle for just an inn?" Jasper said, and then walked right up to the reception desk.

"Are you looking for something?" The receptionist asked rudely, filing her nails.

"Verde family," He said to her. She perked right up.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry sir. Most of our guests call in before, but I suppose we can make an exception. I'll have three rooms ready for you right away, if you'd just swipe your card," She said sweetly.

"Talk about an attitude adjustment," Jasper remarked under his breath. He swiped his card and the receptionist typed on her keyboard and signaled for a butler to come over.

"Follow me," He said, and stepped into the elevator.

Going up to the fifty-sixth floor out of sixty, they stepped off into a luxurious white carpet. The hallways themselves were white as well, with thick black outlines and designs as the trim. The entire place looked as modern as modern gets. The butler opened three doors at the end of the hallway.

"Here are your rooms," He placed the bags in their rooms, ones that had been hastily packed at the pokecenter when they had to call torterra out one last time to get their stuff out. The traveler locked the doors.

"You three explore, I'm-uh-going to have a little chat." Jasper shut the third door.

London and Volkner looked inside the second room and saw both their bags on the bed. They looked at each other, looked at the bags again, and then looked at each other again.

They groaned.

The traveler took this time to change into something more Ebenezer Scrooge like, and entered the hallway where the two were still whining in a long black trenchcoat, a top hat, and some pilgrim shoes.

He looked utterly ridiculous.

"We might as well explore," Grant said. "Especially if Jasper's in there for a long time."

The three heavily bundled heros stepped out into a light flurry, and made their way down the street.

"SUP FUCKERS, HOW DO YOU DO!"

"Wha-" The traveler said in surprise.

"GUESS WHO IT IS ADVERTIZING FOR THEIR LATEST DEVICE? THE POKETCH COMPANY, THAT'S WHO!" The man yelled in their faces, salvia freezing midair and hitting the three of them in the face.

"Could you tone it down? I don't want to have hearing aids next week," Grant said.

"BUT TALKING LOUD IS WHAT THE GUIDE SAYS! TALK LOUD TO ATTRACT SUCKERS-ERR, I MEAN CUSTOMERS."

"Well, if you talk any loudly, I'm afraid you'll lose our buisness." Grant threatened.

"I'm so sorry, I don't want that. Please don't leave," The man lowered his voice in a desperate attempt to keep them. He was dressed as an orange clown. "Anyway, we are holding a promotional. Find three clowns and get any number of free poketchs. I'll even give you a hint."

"Okay..." Volkner said.

"The first jester is where the green haired man preaches." He told them, delighted that he actually got a potential customer.

"Town square?" Volkner asked.

"Obviously," London answered.

"What do you want to eat?" The traveler asked.

London caught sight of a food stand as they neared the square. "Whatever from there," She told him.

"I'll have the same," Volkner said.

Grant hobbled off on his cane, which he surprisingly moved quickly on. The two had their doubts.

"And so, my friends, we hope to rescue someone from the depths of Mt. Coronet to stop this climate change." The man had long grey hair, and wore a yamask on his head, covering his face. He shuffled off. The two also recognized someone else and ducked behind a fountain.

"Ryoku," London mentioned.

"There's power in numbers," Volkner said.

"You two, you are the trainers, right?" A voice asked behind them.

They jolted up and turned around to a clown.

"I am the poketch's first representative. You're the trainers? The ditsy blue haired girl-"

"Hey!"

"-Lt. Surge's son-"

"Who?"

"And the creepy old man on a cane! Looks like he's not here though. Here you go! It's been so long since someone actually found me that I forgot what it's called! So here's a piece of paper. The next clue is: _Find me where no one does anything._" He handed them a slip of paper and then disappeared with a smoke ball.

_VOUCHER PASS GET!_

They picked up the traveler and ate falafel as they rounded the street corner, looking for a place where nobody does anything and generally brain storming. So much so, that they wondered every house, seeing everybody engaged in an activity, until they finally stumbled upon the police station. A jester was seen slipping in.

They followed him into the police station. What they saw was disgraceful to honorable police everywhere.

Three fat cops sat at a table, two of them playing pong and the other one watching. Two more sat at their desks, passed out each with a cheeseburger and a jelly donut in their hands. Coffee steamed off the table, providing an aroma of productivity for an otherwise lazy crew. A tall man stood up, black hair tousled, with a brown trench coat. He was the only one doing anything. An officer hailed the three heros.

"Hey Black Dynamite- Wait a second, what are you kids doing here? Don't tell me we have another case. I told you we are busy right now, and we can't do anything because we're locked up in paperwork," He told them.

"Where's the clown?" London asked.

"Oh, ok. Such a trival matter. I'll have Looker show you over," He turned over to the productive one. "Hey Magmar! Get over here!"

The man slammed down his pen and walked up, putting the fingers on the corners of his mouth and turning them into a smile. The rest of the force that was awake laughed.

"What a hot head," One remarked to the other.

"Yes commander?" He said through clenched teeth.

"Show these guests to the parole officer," He told him.

"Okay," He responded. He turned to them. "Let's go."

Looker took a right and turned down a hallway and sighed. They followed. Grant attempted to make conversation.

"Rough day, huh?" He asked him as he lit his pipe.

"Rough everyday," Looker responded bitterly. "Everyday reports come in of Team Plasma, Team Galactic, even to the lesser extent, Team Rocket-"

Volkner noticed a slight twitch at the mention of Team Rocket on Grant's face..

"-all committing crimes and stealing pokemon and the whatnot. I have enough trouble patrolling around the city. They make fun of me for trying to do my job! They sit here playing pong until that black vigilante comes in and asks them for help, or they try to capture the good guys. One time they led a chase to find the Croman! One of these days, I'm going rogue and try to stop them and criminals myself," Looker finished.

"Sounds tough. Do you have family?"

"Of course! But they already got their pokemon stolen because I was investigating Team Rocket."

They arrived at the parole officer's office.

"Listen to me, Looker," Grant turned him aside while the other two strode into their office. "Team Rocket's presence in this region is minimal. Don't bother them while they are here. Don't mess with forces that are too powerful for you."

"What?" Looker did a double take.

"Take my advice," He pulled out a notepad. "Write the names of the pokemon stolen from you. If you're really going to do this, It would be good that your family has something to strike back with. You will make very unstable enemies."

"Okay? But are you a member of Team Rocket?"

"No, but how I am affiliated with them is not relevant to your interests. Stop the other teams, but don't start a fire you can't put out." He turned away from whispering to Looker to the two who were waiting for him.

"So, sex offender Morris, is that right?" The parole officer asked in a sassy voice. She chewed on a surgery glazed donut.

"Yes," the jester said. He looked at London and Volkner with a sly glance. He licked his lips.

They instinctively took a step back right into the traveler. Looker stood in the doorway, scribbling on a piece of paper.

"Excuse me-"

"Ah yes, the two _delicious _kids," The entertainer said with a smirk. He honked his nose.

"Hey! You finish up here and then you go into the back room. I just needs to do a cavity search, and then you're free to go." The officer said.

"Oh boy!" The clown said. It was now apparent that this meeting need to be short. "Here you kids go. Another pokevoucher you get! And a clue: The third voucher is where the kids with the pumped up kicks go to dress like emos. Actually, it's not that, it's where the men in dastardly black reside. Good luck!"

_VOUCHER PASS GET!_

He turned back to the parole officer, who had some blue gloves on and a huge flashlight. "Ya ready for me to checks inside your asshole?"

"Absolutely!" He enthusiastically said. He ran into the room while London and Volkner bumped into each other at the door, trying to back out of it.

The traveler turned and stood in the doorway. Looker handed him the piece of paper.

"I see you've included the address. Did you think people don't know where the mafia resides?" He said musingly. "Of course...Because it's supposed to be a myth. Just some ancient fact." He chuckled.

"Good luck on your journey," He said, and turned to exit with his friends.

Looker looked at the man leaving him. He had an air of power about him. He doubted he would ever face this man in battle, let alone see his power. He made a mental note. He had better not cross this man's past.

A plasma grunt ran into London and Volkner.

"Hey! You two! Would you like to join the fight for liberation?" He asked.

"No," Volkner dismissed him with a simple answer.

"Go join the Rockets then!" He screamed in their faces.

He stomped off, muttering. "Fuck, the fiftieth person today! Man, am I that undesirable?"

"Come," Grant said, and strode off. The two followed him until the caught a glimpse of a tall black skyscraper. A blue haired man in a black uniform stood outside, watching two other grunts fight.

"Mightyena, Pursuit!" The girl said.

"Golbat, Poison Sting!" The boy said.

The sounds of battle beckoned them, but Grant stopped them.

"Don't make any move unless I do."

The two wordlessly nodded.

"Oh my gawd, you go girlfriend! Yeah, man, tell her to stick it!" The blue haired man was critiquing the battle. His eyes flew wide open. He began to jump up and down excitedly.

"OH MY GAWD, BECKY! HE'S BACK!" The blue haired man said. The girl grunt looked over, distracting herself just enough that her pooch was hit with a Wing Attack. It went down for the count.

"Damn it, Proton! I only lose because you distract me!"

Proton turned to Grant. "I'll have you situated right away, Admiral."

Grant's face was expressionless as he was called by his new title.

He typed a few buttons on the door and held down a big black button with a red 'R' on it. He spoke into the holes.

"The Admiral's here."

The doors immediately opened, and the three walked through the suspiciously silent lobby, with only a nurse in a black uniform greeting them. They stepped in the elevator and were escorted up by another grunt.

London and Volkner exchanged glances. The thoughts in their mind were the same.

Who was this man?


	6. Chapter 6

Snow Ch. 6

Jubilife City: The Saturn 7!

They ascended the elevator up, with Giga Bowser music playing in the background. The elevator was made of all glass except for the top and the bottom. The sides were cleverly painted so they looked like different part of the galaxy. It felt like they were ascending up through the universe.

The glass doors opened to reveal a large lobby with a pretty female grunt in a red dress at the desk.

"Go through the hallway, third door at the left," She said without lifting her eyes towards them.

The traveler checked his watch. It was near evening. Which meant only one thing.

An elegant dinner party. Indubitably.

They stepped into a room with three individuals. A small man who sat on a pile of books was already seated, dressed in white pants, white shoes, a black turtleneck, and a white sports jacket with an R on the right side of his breast. He wore a black paperboy cap. His eyes were a piercing red. The second person seated was a woman who wore a long zebra dress with a red R pin on her left side. Her white hair was put up in such a way that it honestly defied gravity, and she had a cold grey eyes. The last individual had a seat much bigger than the rest, due to his size. His shoulders took up most of what would be his neck, and his head was an almost perfect rectangle. He had bushy black eyebrows that looked like Caterpies, and he had small black eyes that looked like he was squinting. A long jaw with a permanent frown etched on his face were his final features. He wore a black kimono with an R on his right shoulder and a red long sleeved shirt underneath. He had a large saw slung across the back of his chair.

"Welcome, Admiral Grant. We've been awaiting your return," They said in unison.

The traveler just nodded. "You know who I'm here to see."

"He's in a meeting," The woman said in a raspy voice. She took a drag of the cigerette that was in her hand.

"You should stop smoking, Sird."

"Now why would I do that?" She chuckled for a short time until she coughed.

"Take a seat and order something to eat. You might as well indulge yourself. He told us to give you what you wanted," The big man said.

"Very well," Grant sat down. The two kids followed him, sitting across from the three who were each sipping red wine. He looked at his menu while water was poured into three flutes for them.

"What will you have?" The waiter asked Volkner. He looked over to Grant.

"Indulge yourselves. I guess this will be dinner." He said.

"I'll have the Miltank steak, rare please. And a salad with a balsamic vinaigrette."

"Excellent choice. And for you ma'am?"

"The Krabby with the lemon butter. The salad with oran berry vinaigrette, please."

"Beautiful combination. And for you sir?"

"The Basculin. Give me a Archie's rum as well."

The two looked at Grant.

"Are we allowed to get drinks too?" London asked.

"Why not?" He said with a smile. "Just not too much."

London ran her fingers down the menu. She picked something that seemed to sound good.

"A Curacao, please."

Volkner did the same. "Three wise men."

The waiter left.

Their drinks were delivered to the table and Grant watched as London sipped hers with a dreamy look on her face. Volkner, on the other hand, looked disgusted everytime he raised the glass to his lips.

"Too strong?"

Volkner nodded.

"Get what she's having," He instructed him. The waiter soon brought back a glass of blue liquid.

The meals arrived and were placed in front of them. A man strode in just as they were about to dig in.

My, my, if it isn't my brother!" He said with a large grin on his face. He took a seat on the chair and a large golden cat pokemon followed, nesting itself on his lap. The man wore a black tuxedo with the vest unbuttoned. His tie was red and he wore a small red pin of an R on it.

Volkner nearly spat out his food. "Brother?" He asked, choking down a bit of meat.

London's eyes opened wide and she stopped chewing for a moment.

The boss took off his hat. "Of course! Although, features and names change, we are still connected by blood."

"You seem awfully cheerful for running a ruthless organization," Grant told him.

"And this is why we've never been able to get along. Listen, why don't you come back. I've even kept your old ship!" He slid a picture down to him.

"The times have changed. The war is over." Grant said.

"Father never liked your sense of honor," Giovanni spat at him.

"Father never liked your sense of greed," Grant spat back.

The two locked eyes for a moment. They each drew something from their coats and in a flash they pointed it at each other. They were pistols. Giovanni held a german made luger, and Grant held a revolver with a flared barrel and a knife on the top of it. Silence hung in the air.

Giovanni began laughing. "You remember this game?"

"I do. I am not pleased to see that now we are fighting with real objects." They put their weapons away.

"I'm surprised you still have that. It's been a long time since the civil war."

"Almost thirty years,"

"And didn't all your soldiers carry that weapon?"

"They did. Why didn't yours?"

"I always believed they shouldn't be equal to me."

"I remember. That's why we split, right."

"You were too focused on equality to see that we could be kings."

"Or were you too focused on being king. It is good Wes rules that nation now."

"Father always said your sister's child would rise to greatness."

"That he did."

Silence hung in the air.

"I'd like you to do a favor for me." Grant slid the paper to Giovanni.

"At what cost?"

"What do you want?"

"A battle. Or maybe two."

"With me?"

"Of course. But with her as well. I've have already seen what the boy will become."

"Have you?"

"Just like his father, but without the problems. He will bring a new age to the city he runs. I bet you I already know what type he'll use."

"And what is that?"

"Electric."

"You haven't even seen his pokemon."

Giovanni turned from the exchange to Volkner. "What are you carrying?"

"An Electrike and an Elekid."

He turned back to Grant."Case in point, Admiral. However, I won't battle against her."

"As you wish, General."

"If she wins, I'll give her a gift. If she loses, she obviously wasn't material in the first place."

Giovanni snapped his fingers.

"Give her rental pokemon." He adressed her next. "Your pokemon will gain experience even though they haven't participated in battle. This is rocket technology, for training the recruits and such."

The waiter came back with six pokeballs, each with an R inscribed on them.

"Choose three," He said.

She picked three ones after careful consideration with the pokedex.

"I see you are done with your food! Now, for entertainment. Follow me!"

Giovanni whisked himself into the hallway. The three bodyguards silently followed their master. Grant hobbled after them, with London and Volkner on his tail. They stuffed themselves into an elevator and the elevator cables seemed to snap, as they went falling down.

The doors opened. Giovanni opened the doors and flicked several switches. Lights came on above a huge stadium with two spots for the challangers and a large grass field.

"Behold! The Stadium!" Giovanni announced. He strode across to the opposite side and his bodyguards materialized there with him as well.

"London, he wants you first." Grant motioned, and walked over to his side.

She took her spot in the small box with white outlines. She narrowed her eyes to the other side.

"Can you defeat my bodyguards, girl? Carr, Sird, Orm, Go!" Giovanni drew his arm across the field.

"It would be my pleasure," The midget spoke. "My name is Carr, and prepare to faith the wrath of a solid defense!"

"What?" London scratched her head.

"Enough talk! Steelie, Go!" Carr threw a pokeball and a monsterous snake came out. It engulfed the entire side of the battlefield, its red eyes glinting down at London menacingly. It cried in rage.

"STEELIX STEEEEEL!"

"Cradily, go!" London rolled her pokeball.

The prehistoric fossil emerged from its ball, ready to wreck some shit. It swayed similar to how palm trees do in the wind, and let out a battle cry.

"CRA! DILY DILY!"

"Cradily, Dig!" London commanded. Carr was caught off guard by such quick thinking, and lost his element of surprise.

The fossil burrowed underground, concealing itself from view.

"Steelie, Dragonbreath the surface around you!"

The iron snake did as it was told, creating a ring of fire around the grass. However, this did not stop tentacles coming up and wrapping around Steelix, pulling it underground in a hole beneath it. The pokemon was regurgiated out into it's own fire, and Cradily came up safely on the other side.

"Ingrain, Now!"

"Steelie, Slam."

Cradily drew its tentacles into the ground and began sapping nutrients from the soil. It now couldn't be switched out. The Steelix slithered to rooted pokemon and raised its tail.

"STEEEEL!"

The blow made direct impact on the plant, causing it to cringe in pain.

"Energy Ball!"

"Iron Tail, Now!"

The snake raised its tail up again, but an ball of green energy hit it square in the face! The snake recoiled away and abandoned it's attack.

"Smack Down, and then Slam it hard!"

"Curse, and then use Rock Polish."

Cradily turned a shade of teal and lowered it's speed to raise its defense and attack. It's features then became smooth and shiny as it polished itself. This did nothing, however, to stop the Steelix's attacks. Cradily was hit twice, and it's health was beginning to drop into the yellow.

"Cradily, Ancient Power and Earth Power!"

"Steelix, Incenerate and then Payback!"

Raising rocks to fling at the enemy, the fossil hurled them with all its might. Steelix was pelted by these rocks, and but was too distracted to notice magma spewing from the cracks underneath it. It took super effective damage and its health wavered between the yellow and the red.

Cradily was hit by a stream of fire from the iron snake's mouth, causing it to flinch in pain. The move was super effective! Cradily was burned in the process, and then hit with a suddenly strong Payback. It's health dwindled as it tried to sap nutrients from

"Cradily, Facade and Earth Power!"

"Very strategic, but that won't help you. Steelix, Aqua Tail and Dragon Tail!

The Fossil pokemon was hit with a tail that leaked water from its sides. It wasn't very effective, but it still chipped the health away. A powerful dragon tail hit second, causing the Cradily to fall in the red!

The Cradily's burn only enhanced the facade, lashing out at the snake and thrashing it with it's tentacles. For a normal type move, Steelix took a pretty big hit from it. Cradily absorbed nutrients, and flooded magma from the ground. The iron snake attempted to dodge it, but Cradily covered all escape routes and sucked parts of it underground. Coated with scalding hot magma, the steelix screamed it's name in agony. Another big chunk of Steelix's health went down, putting it deep into the red.

"Finish it with Solarbeam!" London shouted.

"Defense curl!"

The Cradily charged up sunlight at the top of its head. The Steelix pulled itself into a small protective ball.

Both of the trainers knew what was going to happen next.

Impact.

"Rollout!" Carr ordered, and the steelix rolled forward at a tremendous speed. An explosion graced the field as the beam collided with the fast moving ball of steel.

"Steelie!" Carr winced.

"Hyper Beam!"

The trainers heard another blast hit the pokemon, clearing the ground. The steel snake laid on the ground, its life force depleted. Swirls in its eyes indicated it's fate.

"You win," Carr said, as he withdrew his pokemon back into the ball.

London returned the Cradily, and placed it softly into the pouch which she was carrying it from.

"You did good," She whispered.

"Now, it's my turn!" The woman said. "My name's Sird, and don't think you'll get off that easily!"

She took a stand and threw a pokeball.

"Go, Star!"

A Starmie took the field, spinning around and generally looking very majestic for a fucking starfish.

"Altaria, go!"

The dragon pokemon did a few graceful flips in the air as it hopped out it's ball.

_So this is what Swablu will evolve into? _London thought.

"Altaria, Cotton Guard!" The pokemon engulfed itself in a sea of white, raising it's defense.

"Star, Thunder!"

The jewel in the center of the pokemon let out a loose jolt of electricity, but missed due to its low accuracy.

"Rain Dance!"

The dragon pokemon's cotton guard was suddenly soaked as rain mysteriously fell from inside.

"Thunder!"

"Altaria, Safeguard!"

The pokemon put up a protective wall just as the lightning found its mark. It took a heavy hit, but avoided paralysis.

"Sing!"

The Altaria came close to the Starmie as it let off another Thunder. The dragon gracefully avoided it and sang to the starfish, making it fall asleep.

"Nightmare!"

"It can't learn that!" Sird gasped, as she saw the two pokemon get engulfed in darkness. The altaria caused the Starmie to toss and turn and eventually violently thrash as it took damage. It's health was cut down to red.

"Altaria, Finish it off with Hyper Voice!" London commanded.

Altaria screamed its name, sending vibrations throughout the stadium. The Starmie awoke only to be assaulted by a series of harsh screeches and screams from the dragon. It writhed in pain, despite it's apparent lack of ears.

"Dragon Pulse, let's go!"

The Starmie was finished as a shock wave hit it. It's jewel broke and it fell to the ground, fainted.

"Interesting," Giovanni observed.

"Orm never loses!" The brute said as he took Sird's place. "Orm sends out Shuck!"

He threw a pokeball, and the mold pokemon took it's place, standing erect.

London recalled the Altaria and sent out a new contender.

"Slowking, let's go!"

"Sloooooooooooooowwwwwww." It said-

Rather slowly.

Despite the obvious decrese in speed, London believed she could finish off this pokemon for good.

"Slowking, Nasty Plot!"

"Shuck used Defense Curl!"

Both pokemon increased their status.

"Swagger!"

"Shuck used rollout!"

By that time it was too late, as swagger had already taken it's toll. Shuck hit itself in confusion, nullifying the effects of the defence curl Rollout combo.

The next few turns were filled with attrition. Slowking disabled rollout, Shuck withdrew into its shell, Slowking used Calm Mind and Light screen and Shuck used Withdraw and Defense Curl again. Finally, Shuck used Rock Polish and Power Trick, and London knew she had to end the lollygagging there.

"Slowking, Ice Beam!"

The beam of energy was a direct hit and froze the Shuckle before it could take advantage of it's now incredibly high attack stat.

"Break it with Focus Blast!"

The bug was shattered in the ice, taking a harsh hit from the move.

"Shuck used Bug Bite!"

"Slowking, dodge it with surf!"

A wave was summoned on the London's side of the field and Slowking rode the wave, dodging the Bug Bite and dealing a super effective attack on Shuck.

"Finish it with Psychic!"

"Shuck use Signal Beam!"

Signal Beam hit the Slowking, damaging surprisingly well and bringing Slowking's health down to red. It could barely muster up the strength to throw the last move of the battle, a Psychic, which proved to be Orm's demise,

"But, how did Orm lose?" He fell to his knees. The three beasts lay slaughtered on the sidelines.

"And I pay you people to protect me? Then again, I'm perfectly capable of protecting myself!" Giovanni laughed."You have chosen correctly! Here!"

He tossed London one of the black balls that the traveler had for all of his pokemon. A small red R was on the center of the ball. She cradled it in her hands.

"A gift! They were only for nobility, and I do not think they exist in this region. Name it accordingly." He looked at Grant.

London moved over with Volkner. "You did great."

"Nah, it was nothing," she blushed. She looked down at the pokeball.

"What is it?" Volkner asked.

"A Larvesta," London said. "I checked it with the pokenav. Don't we have to find that other clown?"

"Now, it is time for our battle, brother." Giovanni challanged him across. "Use your old pokemon, like old times."

Grant stood on his cane in the challanger's box. "So they Admiral and the General clash again. I will use whatever I please."

"Caesar, hail!" Giovanni threw out a pokeball.

"NIDOKING!" The animal shouted, stomping its feet.

"Obviously you haven't changed a bit," Grant said. "But I'll indulge you with a taste of the past."

A Masquerain appeared, buzzing around. It looked back at the traveler suspiciously.

"Yeah, you're back in action, Spyglass."

Caesar suddenly cringed as it's attack stat took a large hit.

"Scary Face tactics, go!" Grant ordered. The Masquerain quickly hovered from left to right, lowering the Nidoking's speed each time.

"Caesar, Stomp!" Giovanni yelled, afraid that his brother was getting the advantage.

"Agility, and then Rain Dance!"

The Masquerain quickly moved out of the way of the stomp using Agility, and then moved up and down summoning a torrential downpour.

"Water Spout!"

"Blaze Kick!"

The attack was canceled out by Spyglass coating it's opponent in a hydrophilic liquid, causing droplets of rain to stick to the pokemon.

"Energy Ball! No wait, don't do-"

"Poison Jab!"

The Masquerain had already lost enough time and charged up an Energy Ball, but it dissipated as soon as the Nidoking hit it square in the wing with its fist.

"Caesar, Fire Blast!"

"I'm sorry! Use Mind Reader!"

The Spyglass's eyes focused on the Nidoking for a moment, before foreseeing it's every move. The Fire Blast disinigrated in the rain, with the Water Sprout and Rain nullifying the damage too much that it couldn't do anything.

"Hydro Pump!" Grant said.

"Get Dirty! Rock Slide!"

Chunks of rocks flew at the bug pokemon, now moving quicker than the eye could see. Nidoking was hit with gallons of water as the bug pokemon got in close for the attack and lobbed off a Hydro Pump. Nidoking suffered major damage and the second hit of the battle drained his health to half.

"Ice Beam!"

"Giga Impact!"

Caesar was frozen before it could even move.

"End this! Bug Buzz!"

Spyglass emitted harsh noises and the glass cracked. The shards fell off and revealed Nidoking, fainted on the ground.

Grant chuckled. "You never could win against a fast moving pokemon."

"Not after this! You think you have it all figured out, but you don't brother! You never could see past one battle." Giovanni mocked him, and threw out a pokeball. Grant returned Masquerain and sent out another pokemon at the same time.

"RY RY!"

"CRAW-DAUNT!"

The huge lobster looked over at the obviously jacked up on steriods rhydon evolution.

"Knock-Off, Red Bamboo!"

Crawdaunt knew better to question its master, but using a dark move against a rock type did no damage whatsoever. It did, however, knock off Ryperior's Life Orb. The beast barely moved as it's orb fell off its plated armor.

"Superior, Protect!"

"Dragon Dance!"

Crawdaunt raised it's attack and speed while the Ryperior stood waiting for a blow that would never come.

"Reflect!"

"Brick Break!"

The Crawdaunt smashed through the Protect and Reflect with it's claw, dealing double the damage it normally would. The hit was also super effective.

"Taunt, and then Swords Dance!"

"Thunder Fang and Hammer Arm!"

The Lobster drew swords from the ground and nimbly dodged a Thunder Fang, mocking the Ryperior in it's face. This Taunt, however, did not stop the rogue pokemon from being flung across the arena as a super effective hammer arm knocked into it. Crawdaunt's health was in the yellow.

"Red Bamboo, Scald and Brine!"

"Stone Edge and Drill Run!"

"Stone's flew up but where quickly dodged by the lobster. It spat burning hot water, inflicting super effective damage and a burn. Ryperior's health dwindled down to half, and salty water rubbed in the wounds of the pokemon, dealing even more damage. Ryperior's health fell down to the red. Special Defense wasn't it's forte.

"Superior, don't take this! ROCK WRECKER!"

"Red Bamboo, Crabhammer with those BIG, MEATY, CLAWS!" Grant shouted at the lobster menacingly.

Crawdaunt remembered band practice in his high school days. He remembered trying to play his flute with his claws. He remembered everything wrong with the band teacher who obviously preferred the pokemon who could sing. He remembered everything from his Corphish days.

He remembered the Bubble Bowl.

Crawdaunt dodged millions of Geodude being flung from the Drill pokemon's hand cannons. He jumped from rock pokemon to rock pokemon, charging up his claws for the final blow. When he saw the burn affect the Ryperior adversely, he noticed an opening when the pokemon faltered.

He struck with a bubbling claw, smacking Ryperior straight against the head.

The Ryperior went down, the Crawdaunt jumping out of the huge cloud of dust to take his final position at the opposite side of the field.

"Crawdaunt, Surf!"

"The entire field was eroded down with water, turning it into a bunch of small rock islands. Ryperior lay facedown in the water, fainted from the remembrance of Crawdaunt's high school years.

"HA! Brother, you never were able to beat me! I see your battling skill haven't changed."

Grant returned Crawdaunt in a black ball inscribed with writing.

_Remember the Bubble Bowl._

"Then again, you are using type advantages." Giovanni said, juggling Superior back into his ball and sending out another.

"Gliscor, Glice!"

"How fun. Laplace, Surf again!"

"Lapraaas!"

The surf engulfed the field again, making the water level high enough to dive in. The Lapras floated in and out of it, waiting for the Gliscor to make a move. Ground based attacks were now useless except for a few exceptions.

"Soar, Acrobatics!"

"Laplace, Psychic and then Dive!"

The Lapras hit the the Gliscor in mid-air first, but the Fang Scorpion pokemon glided over and consumed it's Flying Gem. Lapras was hit hard by triple damage and it's health instantly fell to yellow.

"Don't resurface! Ice Beam from below!"

"That will be it's demise, Soar! Swords Dance and Sky Uppercut it when resurfaces."

Swords rose from the water and surrounded Gliscor, rasing his attack stat. Lapras hit it from below with a doubly effective Ice Beam, and cut it's health down to half. She rose up to attack, but was hit in her vulnerable underbelly by a claw. The transport pokemon screeched in pain as it's health faded to a deep red.

"Now is not the time for fear, Laplace. Blizzard!"

The entire field froze as icicles froze Gliscor into place. It attempted to struggle, but soon snow and cold over came it and it froze into a block of ice. Gliscor fell out of the block, having swirls in it's eyes. Lapras was engulfed by a red beam, before she fully fainted of exhaustion.

"We are done here. You will grant me my wishes, right?"

Giovanni laughed. "Of course! This was wonderful!"

Grant turned to leave, and the two others followed him.

"Please rethink the offer."

"I see nothing but greed. It was independence last time, but now it is consumed by greed. I polietly decline."

Giovanni stepped over to the elevator. "I will be leaving in a couple weeks on my yacht. Think about it and tell me your answer there."

"Very well."

They walked out, Grant with his two underlings. Volkner snatched a ball from Proton's belt on the way out.

London hit him in the arm. "Stealing is wrong."

"Not if they stole first," Volkner added.

"I swear to Arceus, if you don't put that pokeball back on the gay man's belt, I'll..."

Grant snatched the ball from Volkner's hands and held it in the air. "We're taking this!"

"The Beldum? Take it! It's useless anyway! You have fun honey!" He shouted back.

"Problem solved."

They snatched the last voucher pass out of the jester's hand and made their way to the poketch center.

_VOUCHER PASS GET!_

"That was amazing! How did you get called the Admiral?"

"I was in charge of the entire fleet and could utilize any pokemon for an attack," He said proudly. But his tone changed quickly. "I did many horrible things in the war. It is not the fondest subject to talk about." He then stepped back and let the two teenagers lead him around town.

The moonlight shone over a The Poketch Headquarters, trying to compete against it's bright neon lights. The got several new models of the poketech, which allowed the pokenav and their other device to link and be used together without getting them out. They received a box of watches, each ready to be calibrated.

"You're the only ones to have collected all the vouchers in over ten years! Take an entire box, I've been giving them out for free.

The three headed back to the hotel.

* * *

Meanwhile, A set of heads poke out from the corner of a building. First Blaziken, then Jasper, then May, then Duskull, then a Delcatty, and finally a Sandile with Black Glasses on.

"Is that it?" Jasper whispered.

"Yup," May answered.

"Sandile," Shades said.

"Blaze," Blaziken said his name too.

"Skull," Duskull agreed.

"Meow," Delcatty cried.

They stood there for a long time, like a twisted pokemon human totem hybrid, and watched the run down motel with binoculars.

"There!" May said, pointing.

Two dark figures stepped out of a cab, silently stepped up to the second floor, and got in the farthest door.

"Is this really worth it?" May asked, having second thoughts.

Jasper slipped on a Bane mask. "Of course!"

All of the pokemon did the same, and May handed him a large duffel bag.

"Switching to walkie talkies now. Radio in if you need anything." She attached the Bane mask to her face and her two pokemon seperated from them, darting around the corner.

"Converging on the target, over."

"Roger that, over."

The groups of three slowly tiptoed their way to the motel, using the shadows as cover. Skull had left his lantern at home this time in exchange for a bandanna.

They stood at the door, two guns in their hands.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

They bust open the door.

"Your reckoning has come," The both exclaimed into the room.

Three things happened: the man inside jumped off the woman and reached for his belt; London and May fired their weapons, and a set of screams came from the room.

A light was turned on immediately. Lawrence was there, soaking wet in his boxers while a girl with Meowth ears and a tail laid on the bed, clutching the covers to attempt to cover herself up. The entire room was ruined.

"WHAT THE HELL!" Lawrence shouted as May and Jasper both doubled over in laughing.

"I can't breathe," May said in a fit of giggles. She dropped her super soaker to the ground.

Jasper agreed. "I seriously didn't expect this!"

"What the fuck are y'all two doing here?"

"Well, we came to ask you a question..." Jasper started.

"But we see you're currently preoccupied with your fetish!" May finished, and both of them burst into laughter again.

"You guys ruined the room! Do you know how much I get paid?" Lawrence groaned, shivering.

The two of them stood in the doorway and took off their bane masks.

"Put a sock in it! Here, I took the liberty of buying you a new room in this shithole!" Jasper tossed him keys.

"My sides, they hurt too much. What were we even going to ask him?"

Jasper jolted up in realization. "Oh no, I forgot!"

"I told you we should have written it down," She told him condescendingly.

"Get out! You better think twice if I'm going to forgive this."

The two found themselves holding hands as they walked away from the motel where nearly everyone was blaming Lawrence for the commotion.

The two returned to the hotel, recalling their pokemon and slipping into their room. It seemed like the three weren't back yet.

"Why end the fun there?"

"You're right," May agreed and then grabbed him and pushed him against the wall, faces an inch from each other.

"I can just-" Jasper began, but was cut off abruptly.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

"Jasper?"

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

"Jasper?"

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

"Jasper?"

He groaned. "Wait here." He told her as he slipped out of her grasp.

"Ugh. Can't you pretend that you're sleeping?" May asked him. A phone ringing interrupted her moment as well.

"Hello?" She asked on the other line.

"Hi Sheldo- I mean, London," Jasper said, opening the door a crack.

"Hi Jasper," She retorted back. "We got you something."

"Did you have to give it to me now?" Jasper asked, annoyed.

"Well, no, but you stuck in your room the entire time and missed battles and creepy clowns and-"

"Okay, London, I'll be over to your room in a moment." He closed the door.

May looked downcast.

"I have to leave. Family trouble." She sighed.

"See you in Pastoria?"

"Yup."

She stepped out on the balcony and summoned her Swellow. A final goodbye kiss sealed the deal, and he watched her fly into the darkness.


	7. Chapter 7

Snow Chapter 7:

"Ok, now put in the dynamite," Andy whispered.

"Why you gotta whisper like that?" Declan asked in his normal voice.

"Sshh. You'll anger the gods. Now, just light the fuse."

Declan grabbed his lanturn and stuck a splint of wood into the fire. He carefully closed the lamp, adjusted his mining helmet, and lit the fuse. It made a slight fizz while they took the half second they could to run to the small steel bunker which had served as their base.

"It should go off any minute now," Declan panted. While they took their time to take a breath, they kept their ears accute.

There was nothing. No explosion or anything else that remotely sounded like the next cave being opened up.

"I'ma go check this out. Something ain't right," Declan told Andy, puzzled. He ran off to the wall where they had set the dynamite.

His stomach churned troublingly, telling him something wasn't right about this situation, but he couldn't place his finger on it. Until...

"DECLAN, WAIT!"

"Huh?" Declan turned around as the fuse finally ran out, and blew up behind him. Light blinded Andy as he coughed and fell to his knees, trying to get all the dust out of his mouth. His ears ringing and his eyes crying, he got up and stumbled to the wall. He fumbled with the radio until he could connect.

"This is Graveler, over,"

"WE GOT A MAN DOWN, OVER!"

"Slow down, miner. Tell us what you mean, over."

There was no response, as Andy weeped over his friends battered body.

-][-

"When I seen my father coming out of that mine with Uncle Declan in his arms, that's when I knew things weren't going to change. We would be destined to work forever," The boy told Volkner, an odd look on his face like this was some profound statement of truth.

He sat on the steps with the boy, listening to the kid retell the tale, while the traveler sat in the rocking chair, reading a book entitled Shuckleberry Finneon. An older woman stood in the kitchen, instucting London on the proper way to cook. It was very rustic looking.

But then again, this was a very old fashioned town.

They had taken a leisurely stroll on Route 203, grinding off the numerous youngsters and lasses there after they had fled from Team Plasma. They had arrived in Oreburgh City, which reminded the traveler of some place he had been in the long past. No inns were avaliable, so the traveler managed to convince a friend of a friend to let them stay.

Jasper came running in, holding the door for his pokemon carting groceries.

"See Ester, we got everything you needed. You don't have to worry about eating anytime soon!"

"Oh, thanks, hon." The woman appeared to be in her late thirties, but her red hair was already graying out already. She wore a traditional red dress and had her hair up in a ponytail. She looked exhausted.

But that's what this life will get you.

"I carn't remember the last time we had all this stuff!" She shouted as the Duskull was still floating crates into the cellar inside, which was surprisingly roomy for the small house they had. Jasper organized it by type downstairs, making everything easy to access for future use.

"You didn't have to buy all this! This must have cost a fortune!"

"It's nothing. You let us stay here remember. You even got London to do something productive!" He grinned, looking over at the girl chopping vegetables.

She groaned. "I do my equal share-"

"Lies!"

"Jasper, I swear I will knock you upside the head if you say another word." She said reproachingly.

"That would be mighty fierce for just a little joke," He added, and then hopped out of London's reach.

"Ya'll have to leave for the gym at three, remember." Ester reminded them."You better get dressed in your normal clothes. Won't want to be looking like miners in a town full of them."

About fifteen minutes later, the three were dressed in their normal clothes and were ready to go out the door.

"Mr. Grant, are you coming?" London asked.

"I'd reckon I'd just stay here and watch over Ester and the boy," He said.

They approached the gym in high hopes, but after utterly slaughter the four trainers that gym leaders keep as pets in the gym, they found themselves faced with a family dilemma.

"Damn it dad, I'm not going to let my people suffer like this! Welcome to the new age!"

The purple haired man chuckled sinisterly. "You honestly think you can change lifestyles here within a matter of days? You think you can just let your city fall into poverty? We are desert trainers, we understand hard work and old fashioned values. But apparently you don't understand that anymore. You want to be like these modern cities who pride themselves on doing nothing and sitting all day! Just look at Castelia City!" He yelled at him.

"No, Dad, I mean I'm sick of having both man and pokemon labor only to die in the darkness of the mines!"

"Who else will do it?" He grunted. Roark stood there, fuming, fists clenched. He had no counter.

He looked over. "You have challangers. I will take my leave."

He stepped over to the trio, and noted them briefly. "My name is Byron. I am the gym leader of Canaclave City. I hope to fight you someday."

With that, he walked out of the gym, his purple hair bouncing with every step.

"You there, challangers!" Roark said. "I want to battle you but I want you to agree with me first!"

"Aren't we allowed to have our own opinions?" Jasper remarked.

"NO!" He took a drink of a clear liquid in a jug.

"Aren't you a little young to be drinking?" Jasper asked, but Roark dismissed him.

"There ain't no drinking limit in this here county. Now, if you want to battle me, you have to go underground and gather coal gems for processing. When you have five, then you have my permission to challenge the Roark-ster!" He said. He then strode off into the bathroom, and locked the door.

_Click._

"Well, let's go to the underground then," Jasper sighed. "Always holding my hand,"

"How do we do that?"

"Well, first you just grab a hand and wrap your fingers around it," Jasper watched as she took the nearest hand and wrapped her fingers around it, almost like a second nature. "I honestly don't know about the second. Let's ask Ester."

With that, they departed, Volkner's face red with his hand caught in London's. Jasper smirked as they entered the town again.

-][-

"You'll need one of them Explorer Kits, but I think the only place that sells them is the minimart down the street," She told them. "Are you sure you want to do this? The mines ain't stable enough." A hint of worry came across her face.

"We'll be fine," Volkner told her. "You don't have to worry about us."

A quick trip to the minimart and they were equipped in mining jumpsuits, complete with a hammer, a pickaxe, a brush, three containers for objects and a heavy duty tablet. Pokeballs hung off another belt loop. They stepped into the mine at dusk, after eating a hearty dinner at Ester's.

Zubats. Zubats everywhere. A sea of purple covered the ceiling while a cloud of purple flapped their wings and darted every which way and that.

"No wonder Team Rocket has tons of these. You could catch them with a net," Volkner said as he used his boots to step into the foot deep coating of guano on the ground.. London clung to his arm, being deathly afraid of bats. Volkner didn't mind this, although with every step further into the cave, he felt his face get redder as London got closer to him.

"Does it get better?" She asked him.

"Hopefully."

The three stepped through the cave until their boots didn't stick to the ground anymore. They shook off any remaining guano from their boots and traveled deeper, their mining helmets illuminating the way. They finally found themselves in the underground, which was lined with supports of wood from the strongest Timburr and lamps from the hottest flames of Charmander. This was no ordinary mine, this was a heart for the Oreburgh complex. The dirt rose up from their feet, and their were holes all in the wall were coal diggers hoped to get lucky.

"See, we do it like this," They heard a voice and approached it. Intruding on the miner who was talking to another miner, he demonstrated how to pick the wall. The three looked over his shoulder and watched in curiousity.

"Now, watch Carl. Declan was a damn good miner, and you can be one." He wiped a tear from his eye. "First, you want to get the hammer. Typically you use this to smash the first part of the wall. The hardest thing to do is get all the coal, or these colorful gems, out of the wall." He hit the wall hard with the hammer, and the wall crumbled partly away from its touch.

A glint of red shone from behind the wall. "Now you see here, this is what you want. Now it's time to use your pickaxe to dig around it" He tapped the pickaxe around it and it revealed the big red gem nestled in the rock. He pulled it out effortlessly. "Now, do you get the hang of it, Carl?"

"Yeah, I think I gets it. You should attend to your visitors, Andy." The man looked up at the three out of place miners who's hair wasn't already completely black from the coal dust.

"What do you want?" He asked nastily.

"Excuse me, we're just looking for the best place to find gems to fight the gym leader," London told him.

"Of course you are. He sends a new trainer down here every week. You know what, I'll send you to the best part this time so you ain't spend to much time down here. Follow the signs from Robert until you get to Declan, and than at the end of that tunnel near the rock pile. There you'll find the best and biggest gems I reckon." He smirked.

"Ok!" London sauntered off to the mines. She towed Volkner behind her.

Jasper glanced at Andy, who was still smirking. He ran off to catch up with two.

"That'll show them. I don't mean to be cruel, but it's the only way they'll see."

The lights got considerably dimmer each time they turned a corner.

"Don't you think this is getting kinda suspecious?" Jasper asked.

"What are you talking about?" London asked. "Mines are always dark."

"London, sometimes you can be so thick headed."

They reached the wall and started mining, the helmets the only light they could see. A few minutes later and they had gathered tons of fossils and coal gems. Andy was right, this place was a gold mine.

"Okay, we have enough, we should get going." Jasper. He was getting more uneasy at the moment.

"Wait, I just need to get this fossil. It looks like the pokemon I used at the Rocket Tower," London finely picked the wall. It started to crumble.

"No! Wait!" She stuck her hand in and forcefully pulled the fossil out. The wall crumbled and she held a perfectly intact Root Fossil. However, it revealed something large and gold.

"WHO DARES DISTURB MY SLUMBER?" A deep rumbling voice said.

"See! I told you this was a bad idea!" Jasper had to rub it in.

"Shut up Jasper!" They both said at the same time.

"MY NAME IS CONFAGRIGUS! I AM ONE OF THE GREAT CIVILIZATIONS RULERS! NOW TELL ME, WHO DISTURBED MY SLUMBER!" The voice said, now irritated.

"M-me..." London raised her hand weakly.

"Okay, I did too," Jasper stepped up to the now floating sarcophagus.

"Fine, me as well," Volkner joined in.

"YOU MUST SUFFER!" The Confagrigus said. It's eyes opened up on the top of it and ghostly hands extended it's arms.

"Bail!" The three began running but froze in place as the coffin used Mean Look on them. It fired a shadow ball at the ceiling and rocks tumbled down from the ceiling, effectively trapping them inside the small dark cavern. The heroes were forced to fight.

"YOU MUST BE PUNISHED!"

"Shades, Bite!" The small croc came out in a burst of red and immediately flung itself at the evil king, biting one of the hands that extended from it's coffin. It yowled in pain.

"Cloud, Astonish!"

"Noble, Bite!"

The two pokemon appeared in a similar flash, and immediately got to work on the other two hands. Swablu was pecking the hand, while sandile and Electrike latched onto the other hand. The super effective damage was being dealt nicely.

Wisps of fire surrounded the coffin, and it launched them at the three pokemon who were in close proximity. They all were burned and fell back.

"SECONDARY EFFECT HEX GO!"

Launching several purple energy balls, they hit each pokemon on the mark. The typing was irrelevent here, it hit each pokemon. Swablu and Sandile took considerably less damage then the struggling Electrike.

"Noble, hang in there! Another Bite, let's go!" The Electrike straightened itself up and jumped, munching down on the hand as hard as it could. A critical hit and it's health was already in the yellow.

"Now Wing Attack!" The bird pokemon summoned gusts of winds to its aide and flung them at the confagrigous, causing it to flinch.

"Now, finish it off with Assurance, Shades!" Another hit with double damage and a super effective hit put the sarcophagus out of it's misery.

"RETURNING TO SLEEP. DON'T DISTURB ME AGAIN." The hands retracted in and it's eyes closed.

"We're going to die here." Jasper sunk down to the floor. With his only ground pokemon out, he couldn't do anything to clear the rocks. Skull hovered around him, having been sent out after Jasper returned the suffering croc, unable to do anything but smash headfirst in the rocks. He wasn't a gas pokemon like Haunter or Gastly, and therefore didn't have the ability to go through walls.

London realized that her bird pokemon were useless as well- Chirp was unable to even lift a rock with his psychic power while Cloud was still burnt and even if it wasn't, it couldn't do anything.

Volkner sent out his elekid and attempted to dig himself out, but it was hopeless.

They were stuck there.

An hour passed. And then another. Soon they lost track of time as the clocks ticked by. Nothing worked here, in the deepest part of the mine.

Jasper looked up from his despair. "It only takes three days to die, right?"

"Yup," Volkner said.

"Mmhmm." London murmured.

The three were in odd positions on the floor, awaiting the time to when they would run out of energy and fall asleep.

-][-

"I'd like to thank you for taking me down here, Ester."

"It's no problem. What my husband did was despicable. I understand he's tired of watching his friends claimed by this place, but he cannot just send outsiders to prove a point."

Grant and Ester walked down the stairs into the mine, not taking the cave path but instead the stairs around the elevator. They reached the ground floor.

"I'm sorry, I have no pokemon that can fit down here that would be truly useful in finding him." He grimaced, seeing that his abilities were useless down here. Instead, the small racoon followed him, energetically sniffing everything that he saw.

"Don't worry, this thing happened before. That's how myself and Andy met. I saved him, and he was grateful enough to pursue me for it." She sighed, noting the change in her husband.

They passed a sign. _Official Death Count: 206. _The previous five was scribbled out and a 6 was above it.

"It's terrible really, but there is nothing else we can do. No one makes machines for coal miners." She said.

"I see. When I was in the war- the same negligence was present." They arrived at the sign named Declan.

"He was his brother. The two were together like a Girafarig head and tail." She drew a pokeball from her purse.

"Machamp, Dynamic punch!"

The four armed pokemon slammed through the rocks and reduced them to dust.

"Now now, what have we got here?"

The two turned as Machamp continued to make short work of the boulders.

"I thought I told you to stay up there Andy. You're mind obviously isn't clear enough." Ester hissed at her husband, who stood there. He had a large bruise on his head.

"I can't let you do that Ester. If you save those kids, more men will die. If more men die, then this city will die. The coal will never ever dry up. There is no end to this suffering unless lives that aren't as expendable as ours are taken."

"This is not the only way," The traveler said, seeing that his cane hadn't done as much damage as he hoped.

"IT IS! YOU FUCKERS DON'T HAVE TO DO JACK SHIT AROUND HERE! COOKING AND CLEANING AND TAKING CARE OF THE KIDS IS NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT I DO! I BREATHE THIS AIR, I DRINK THIS WATER WITH ALL KINDS OF SHIT IN IT, I WATCH MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY DIE AS THEY ARE RIGHT NEXT TO ME! ALL BECAUSE OF THIS!"

He threw several coal gems on the ground, and got a wild look in his eye.

"It would be best not to try anything, Andy. I understand how it is to watch your friends die." Grant told him. "Calm down, more lives do not need to be claimed in this."

"Yes they do." He threw a pokeball on the ground. "PRIMAPE, STOP THEM!"

"I'll handle this." He stepped in front of Ester.

"Zags, Hidden Power!"

"HA! Primape, Close Combat!"

The angry ball of fur got in close to the racoon and started hurling punches at it, but if found that the small pokemon was dodging each one. Primape moved slower and slower until it felt unbelievably exausted. This was just the first part of the battle, there was no way it could be this tired. It felt a shock hit its brain and put its hands up to its head, clenching it. It rolled on the ground as it tried to stop the mental pain.

"Zags, Hyper Voice!"

Primape, with an already stinging pain in it head, was tortured even more as soundwaves assualted its sensitive ears. It fell to the ground, defeated.

"There should be something done about you," The traveler walked up to the miner and motioned for his pokemon to make an attack. A cold wind froze his feet to the ground.

"Would you like to die with your friends?" His eyes met Andy, who now began trembling.

"N-n-no..."

"That's what you just subjected my friends through, though. Now, tell me, why shouldn't I unleash rocks from above to crush your body into a corpse?"

Andy had no response; he merely whimpered in fear.

"Of course not. No response. Typical of the enemy. "

"Herman!" Ester scolded him.

"You're wife saved your skin this time. Just remember that next time I may not be so kind." He waved his hand and the racoon let out a small burst of fire, just enough to melt the ice.

The Machamp had finished turning the rocks into ashes, and Grant noticed the remnants of a battle. He hobbled over to Jasper, who seemed to have the worst of it.

"Arceus? Is that you?" He smiled weekly. "It's me, Margret."

He pulled him up to his feet and then started pulled London and Volkner up.

"You're safe now."

The next few days were of rest and recuperation. Andy apologized to them, but still returned to the mines. Nothing had changed for him. Jasper, however, gave him a piece of his mind as was prepared to give Roark the same. But he had a few errands to run first.

"London, come on," He said as he slipped on his jacket.

"Where to?" She asked, curious.

"Somewhere. I'm not sure Volkner would want to come, seeing as he doesn't have it..."

"What are you talking about? Of course he'll want to come." London wasn't sure if she said this out of fear for what Jasper might do or because she really wanted to spend more time with Volkner. Not that Jasper was dangerous or anything, but he was pretty determined to get what he wanted sometimes.

She called him down and he came, and the three slipped out the door, Jasper leading the way. His Duskull seemed to have an idea where he was going. He stepped into the futuristic building on the far end of town and walked up the the receptionist.

"I'd like these three fossils restored," He told her.

"Of course," The aide said. She took the fossils into a back room, and with three flashes of light she came back, with three pokeballs. Jasper took the first two and slid the third down to London.

"Since the fossil was damaged, you may want to not use him in battle until he fully regenerates. That will take about a year." London was visably disappointed at the aide's instructions.

"Hey, at least you got one, right?" Jasper smiled at her.

"Right..." She tossed the pokeball in her purse.

"Just keep it around for kicks. It can still do things, even if it can't battle." Volkner said as they exited.

While London and Volkner were preoccupied with walking home, Jasper walked over to the corner store and stepped inside, looking at magazines. A man came to stand next to him, dressed in a miner's uniform.

"Sup kid. You got what I need?" He asked.

"Like usual. Thanks for coming on such short notice."

They each exchanged a small sandwich sized plastic bag.

"You know how to use one, right?"

"Yup," Jasper said. He picked up a a box of candy, a couple of drinks, a small bottle of liquor and a book on clearance.

He walked up to the counter and placed his order on the counter. The shop keeper scanned all the items until he got to the liquor. "Sir, I can't let you have this."

"I'm sure you can let it slide. Take a nice amount out for yourself." He slid his card over.

The man slid the card down after scanning the liquor. The parted ways, the shopkeeper with an extra hundred dollars in his pocket and Jasper with what he needed in a paper bag.

"Hey guys, wait up!" Jasper ran to catch up with London and Volkner, who were already halfway home.

-][-

"Now, you may battle me!" Roark took another drink of moonshine.

"Certainly. London and Volkner, why don't you go first?" Jasper suggested. He tossed a small CD to Volkner.

"Jasper?"

"Just put it on the center of the pokeball. The pokenav will take care of the rest." Volkner slipped the CD on and it started spinning. It slowed down and the pokeball popped it off, right into Volkner's hand.

"Are you ready yet?" London asked him. Her Natu was already on the field, waiting for a command. Roark had sent out a Geodude and Nosepass.

"Of course! Generator, come out!" He tossed the pokeball he had just used the CD on.

"Ele, Ele!" The Elekid seemed happier than usual.

"Geodude, Rock Smash on Elekid! Nosepass, Magnet Rise!"

"Future Sight, Chirp!"

"Generator, Brick Break!" Roark grimaced at the sound of this.

As the string of commands was shouted, the pokemon reacted to them. Geodude attempted to land a blow but super effective damage by a quick three punches by Elekid put him on red health.

"Geodude, Rock Tomb! Nosepass use Rock Polish!"

"Dodge it with another Brick Break!"

"Chirp, Sunny Day!"

The Natu chirped towards the sky and a bright ball of light appeared inside the industrial gym, causing a unwavering heat. The Nosepass focused on smoothing itself while Elekid smashed through rocks thrown the Geodude, who attempted to flee as it was struck down.

"Geodude, return! Nosepass, Rock Tomb!"

"Chirp, Solarbeam!"

Even though the Nosepass was faster it was dealt super effective damage as the based grass beam blasted through the rocks and hit it square in the nose. It laid on the ground, swirls in it's eyes.

"Good job you two." Roark threw two badges at them. They caught them and stepped back, ready to watch Jasper battle.

"Onix, go!"

"Venus, take your place."

Jasper stared coldly at the rock snake and Roark. The new pokemon that Jasper had aquired was an ancient bird that stood on two clawed feet. It's body and wings consisted mostly of colorful feathers and its head, pointed tail were reptilian. It screeched and hopped back and forth.

"Venus, Aqua Tail!" Roark frown again at the command. Especially since he knew that this pokemon couldn't learn this move naturally.

"Onix, dodge and Slam! How'd you-"

"Egg moves are a bitch aren't they?" Jasper answered his question quickly. "Although, that's not why I'm here. Why do you treat your people like garbage, Roark?"

"I don't understan-"

"You know damn well you do! Why do you do this?"

The rock snake tried desperately to dodge, but a powerful tail of water hit it square in the head. It then hopped away, watching as the Onix missed its move and slammed its tail against the ground.

"Venus, Hone Claws!" The Archen began scrapping her claws on the ground, sharpening them.

"Onix, Rock Throw!" The Archen nimbly dodged it. This looked like a one sided battle, and Roark was losing.

"Venus, Earthquake! Come on Roark, sending newcomers to MINE for you? You're own people have died so much, you're running out! I'll make sure this institution crumbled to the ground with you."

Tiles started falling from the ceiling as the ground shook, the Onix taking a fatal hit and going down. Roark dodged out of the way of one.

"Hey! Cranidos, Head Smash!"

"Venus, Bulldoze! Do you honestly think that everyone will listen to you, the cruel slave driver who only cares about COAL!"

The Cranidos charged towards the ancient raptor but slipped on the mass of ground that the ancient bird had pushed towards it. It stumbled and was buried and pushed forward, hitting Roark and trapping him under his pokemon. He screamed in agony.

"Jasper, stop it!"

"London, stay out of this! Or, matter of fact, join in! He tried to kill you too!" Jasper had that wild glint in his eye. London knew she couldn't stop him when he was like this.

"Stop, Stop! I'll give you anything you want! You already earned the badge, take it!" Roark threw the badge at Jasper from his pinned position on the ground. Roark was unsure he could use his legs anymore. He made no move to catch it, and it hit him in the chest and fell to the ground.

"No, Roark, I want you to suffer! I want you to feel trapped like we were, and I want you to die in the cold underground, with no one there to hear your scream. Venus, finish the Cranidos with Earthquake!"

The struggling dinosaur had managed to dig itself out, but it wasn't prepared for another hit. The earthquake claimed it's victim, and kept shaking the arena as Roark struggled to get himself free.

Archen's concentration was broken with a bang of the front door.

"What, Venus stop!" Jasper called. His female raptor hopped over to him in curiousity. Roark sighed in relief.

"It's not worth it, but they are!" Jasper pointed to the mass of Team Plasma grunts that had just burst through the door.

"It's topless girl!" One grunt said.

"Yeah, show us your tits!" Another chimed in.

"Guys, we're supposed to distract the gym leader so that Ryoku can ransack the city for the plates that that old miner family has!" The other grunt tried to get them on track.

The other two punched him in the stomach. "Bitch, you said too much."

He doubled over and fell to the ground.

"Archen, Acrobatics!"

Hone claws helped as the Archen slashed through the hastily sent out pokemon before moving onto the grunts. This pokemon was vicious, and immediately finished off the two Patrat that were sent. It looked up at the grunts with a snarl on her face, and her claws dripping with blood.

"ARCH!" The prehistoric bird cried.

"RUN AWAY!" The Archen chased the fleeing grunts to the entrance of the gym.

"It's a crisis. Roark, save your people or watch them burn. I'm not going to help you nor hurt you. You've suffered enough for your actions."

"Jasper! Help him!" London scolded him.

He responded with one word. "No." With that, he stuck his hands in his pockets and walked out the door.

"I'm s-so sorry! He just does this sometimes!" She apologized as she and Volkner pulled him from the large mound of dirt his legs were stuck in. Luckily he could still walk.

He started to cry. "He's right! I really deserve it! I haven't been a good mayor at all! I just make people work because that's all that my dad does!"

"Hey, you can always start over! You have a city to save. Go do it." Volkner put a hand on his shoulder.

He sniffed. "How? I don't have any other pokemon."

Volkner shoved a ton of potions and revives in his arms. "Solution."

With that, the two left the gym, leaving Roark to decide on a course of action.

The city was off worse than the thought. Buildings were burning and people were being beaten. Team Plasma and Galactic grunts ransacked every house, looking for these supposed plates. Jasper was busy with at least ten grunts. His Sandile unleashed elemental fangs, his Duskull threw Shadow Balls, and Archen was busy slashing and swiping any pokemon that would come.

"Uh, a little help here guys?" Jasper seemed like he was back to normal.

Quickly dispatching the grunts, they found the mass of grunts at Ester's house. She was barely holding in there with her Machamp throwing punches. The traveler's Camerupt and a new addition of a Shieldon were setting grunts on fire and headbutting them.. It was a full on massacre of pokemon and grunts.

"AHAHAHAHA! GIVE US THE PLATES OR DIE!" Ryoku cackled on the rooftop of a house. He stroked his beard wildly, watching his plan go into effect, regardless of how it worked.

"Go to the mine and get Andy!" Ester panted at them.

A quick run across town and a couple more grunts down and they made it to the mine.

"Hey! What are you doing here?" Lawrence, their Team Magma ally, had tons of grunts gathering coal in the midst of the confusion.

"What are you doing here?" Volkner raised an eyebrow.

"Boss said we have to collect coal, but I'm guessing you're here to stop me-

"Wait we're not going-" London began, but he continued.

"-So you'll have to fight me!"

Lawrence sent out a Combusken, Ponyta, and Barboach, each ready to fuck some shit up.

"Lawrence, if you want to fight, then fight the plasma grunts. We just want the only miner that's in here." London said. "I'm not going to fight you, it would be a waste. I thought you were my friend."

Lawrence stepped up to London and moved so that his head rested on her shoulder. "Yeah, but I gotsta keep up appearences, you know. So when I yell scram, run away, ok? I'll be gone when you get back."

Volkner squirmed, but Jasper kept him from doing anything.

"B-but it looks like-" Volkner stammered.

"Relax, he won't do anything. He's not interested in her. Opposites attract."

He stepped back. "Scram! My friends, make your Zubat's use Scary Face." All the Magma grunts who were gathering coal sent out their Zubats, which were useless for anything but nondamaging moves right now. Their eyes glinted in the darkness, and London took that cue to run past them.

"Come on!" Jasper pulled Volkner with him, following her.

"Wow boss, you're so badass!" A female grunt fawned.

"Yeah, you scared those trainers away!" Another grunt said.

"Relax guys, we need to get back to the base. Hurry up and load those crates into the truck." Lawrence said cooly.

The Magma grunts loaded the crates into the truck, and then got in the back, all of them happy to have done something. Lawrence got in front with his admin.

"Everybody accounted for, boss." He said to him.

Lawrence pressed a button and the truck's back cover extended out, making it seem like every other mining truck around here. He returned his pokemon and started the truck engine. All the grunts heard the radio came on and let out a magnificant singing shout.

"I'M ON A HIGHWAY TO HELL!" They sang as the truck drove through the gates, purposely hitting any Galactic or Plasma grunt in the way to Mt. Cornet.

Andy came out in compliance with the heroes- It was the least he could do after trying to kill them. However, when he saw his hometown being destroyed, he decided to go into rage mode.

"Ramparados, Primape, Tauros, attack!"

The four battled their way back to the house, where Ester's Machamp had fainted and the traveler was wrecking shit with his torterra and Camerupt, the Shieldon having been returned.

"Oh, look, It's these meddling kids again." Ryoku said, stroking his beard. He seemed to be winning the war of attrition, but at least a hundred grunts had fallen back, either with pokemon all fainted or themselves too injured to carry on. The rest of the city seemed to be fighting back as well, because Roark had started systematically, house by house, battling off the grunts.

"Now, it's time to finish you. Especially you, girl." He pointed a long, boney finger at London. "Your whore tricks-"

"WHORE?" London's eyes blazed with fire and Jasper and Volkner held her back while she squirmed to get at Ryoku.

"-may have worked on my men, who are obviously sex crazed fanatics who try and rape our females every night, but not on this old man who has ED!" He threw out three pokeballs, as a triple battle was about to take place.

"Kadabra!"

"MAGIKARRRRRRRPP!"

"Goth, Goth."

"Eww. Shades, Take position on the left." The small croc, happy it was going to be fighting again, jumped up and down enthusiastically.

"Cloud, on the right! Volkner, you be the ringleader this time." The Swablu was freed from its pokeball.

"Noble, take point!" He sent out his electrike, which roared. "Okay, start this off with Spark on the Magikarp!"

"Shades, I want Kadabra gone. Do what you think is best." The small croc looked uneasily at his trainer, but accepted his challenge.

"Cloud, that thing is really weird, Steel Wing it!" London told her pokemon.

"HA! Your weak shit can't compare. Magikarp, Flail! Kadabra, Energy Ball! Gothita, stop fucking staring and use Heal Block!"Ryoku stroked his beard even harder.

Sandile went into action first, dodging the grass ball flung at him and jumped up in the air, latching onto the Kadabra's arm with a powerful bite. While the Kadabra tried to shake the croc off, Noble slammed into Magikarp with a powerful electric charge and fainted it with one hit. It flew back into Ryoku, doubling back. The Gothita, distracted from it's intense staring, sent out a large purple block on all three pokemon.

_Gothita used Heal Block. None of the pokemon can be healed or use healing moves!_

"Sandile, hang in there!" Jasper shouted as it was thrown back into the dirt. The croc seemed to falter getting up.

"HA, your pokemon is fainted!" Ryoku stroked his beard even faster.

"No it's not! It's evolving!" Volkner said.

With a flash of light, Sandile became bipedal. His arms elongated and crossed; His now long snout and it's body grew larger. The pink underbody became more prominent as his claws grew larger and a smirk grew on his face. He grew up to be level to Jasper's shoulders. To top it all off, he pulled out a set of dark Kamina glasses and put them on.

"KROKOROK!" It roared, with a smirk on it's face.

"The battle is up to you, buddy!" Jasper grinned.

"Oh shit!" Ryoku exclaimed as a powerful crunch caught Kadabra in the Desert Croc's maw. He slammed him against the ground on all fours and tossed the Kadabra into the ground by Ryoku's feet. He picked up the spoons on the ground and opened his maw wide, eating both of them. Krokorok smirked as he saw that the Kadabra was defeated, swirls in its eyes.

Gothita, however, was focused so intently on the evolution of Sandile that it forgot all about its attack. It looked up to see the cloud bird pokemon toss it effortlessly across the dirt with a powerful steel wing.

"Cloud, finish it off with Pluck!"

The bird pokemon delivered an onslaught of pecks on the fixation pokemon. It dropped down and out for the count. Meanwhile, Electrike and Krokorok exchanged blows with a Snover, which was now out in substitution of the worthless fish pokemon.

"Cloud, another Pluck!"

Swooping in from above, the bird scored a super effective hit before it could catch an icy wind from its foe. The snover fell over, defeated.

"Look! You lost! Fuck off!" Jasper yelled at Ryoku, who had stopped stroking the white goatee of his.

"RETREAT!"

"But boss, tits!"

"YOU IDIOTS, WE CAN'T SURVIVE THIS SLAUGHTER ANYMORE! BACK TO THE FUTURE!"

Ryoku jumped in a DeLorean and the entire town watched as all the grunts clung onto it, resulting in a not so speedy getaway.

"K." Volkner said.

The entire town, with bruises and blood on their hands, looked at Roark, who they waited for him to say something. Their pokemon fared no better, at least half of them had fainted and the rest where exhausted.

"You have to make a speech now, _Mayor._" Andy whispered to him.

"O-oh, yeah, r-right." He said. He scratched the back of his head. He had never even talked to his citizens before.

"How about I do it for you?" The traveler suggested.

"T-that would be most great," Roark stammered.

"Brothers and Sisters, we have fought a great battle today. We have lost many things, including our health and our homes. But are we just going to let them come back?"

"NO!" The crowd answered him

"Rise up like a Ho-Oh in the fire, my friends. Rebuild and get stronger! Your mayor will assist you in your duties. For now, go to your friends and family, and make sure they are okay. Heal your pokemon, and take a good rest. You will need it."

He turned to the three. "I think it would be beneficial to leave. I will be waiting on the next route. Give Ester my regards."

"Why are you leaving so soon?" London asked him.

"I don't need people to ask questions." He told her.

They worked their way back to the house they had been staying in. Windows boarded up and tiles falling off, it was a wreck. Ester was crying on the doorstep, her son rubbing her back.

"What's wrong?" Volkner asked.

"Those bastards snuck around back and stole the collection?"

"What collection?" London asked, obviously concerned.

"The ones...we kept in the foyer! The elemental plates that Andy had found one day in a box with the note...that they go to Arceus!"

"We'll get them back for you!" London said.

"London, shouldn't we-"

"Oh, thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!" She hugged all three of them.

"I'm sorry for what happened to you in the mine again." Andy stood in the doorway.

"Don't worry about it. Nothing too important happened of it," Jasper said.

"Of course nothing did." Volkner rolled his eyes. "Here, I have something for you. That pokeball's for your kid, Dwight."

He looked inside the sack. In it were all the coal gems they had collected. "I can't tell you how much this means to me."

"You don't have to."

The three waved as they made their way away from the home.

After a quick trip to the pokemon center, they met Grant at the trail, smoking a pipe on top of his Torterra.

"Time to go."

It was only right to let the suffering Oreburgh City rebuild itself after a battle. No outsiders would ever know the pain.


End file.
